INFORMATION

The Baltic has been an important route for navigation and of great strategic importance for the navies of many countries. It is not surprising that at its bottom there may be thousands of shipwrecks, ancient and modern. The Baltic is a closed-shelf sea, so it is relatively shallow: its average depth is only -52 m. This creates favorable conditions for exploration.

The Baltic is, in fact, the largest stable brackish water habitat in the world. Its waters have a much lower salinity than typical oceanic waters, which has a substantial impact on the state of conservation of the objects that lie on the bottom, it is for that reason that metallic objects remain in better condition for longer periods. long. 

Another important characteristic related to the exchange of water through the Danish Strait is the oxygen content. Infusions of oxygen-rich ocean water with the Baltic are rare and short-lived (a few to several days). Over time, the dissolved oxygen in the water lining the bottom is fully used up, and in many deeper places so-called "dead areas" or "biological deserts" are formed with limited biological life. This, from the point of view of archeology, has a beneficial effect on the state of preservation of materials of organic origin (eg wood, leather, textiles, basketwork) because it decomposes very slowly. Other abiotic factors that should also be mentioned are the cold and the lack of light, but the most important is the fact that the low-temperature fluctuations in the bottom are minimal, which positively affects the artifacts. On the Hel Peninsula in Poland alone, there are more than 40 wrecks accessible to divers of all levels.