Legends of the Curonian Spit: Baltic Sea, birds and dunes. Curonian Bay of the Baltic Sea: description, water temperature and underwater world Who is found in the Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea belongs to the Atlantic Ocean basin, is located in Northern Europe and has a surface area of 415 km 2. Many rivers flow into it, so it has a medium salinity, it is one of the largest seas in the world with this feature. There are no big storms in the Baltic, the maximum wave height rarely reaches more than 4 meters, so it is considered calm in comparison with other seas. The water temperature is quite cold, no more than 17-19 degrees Celsius, but this still does not stop local residents from swimming in the summer.

9 Baltic neighbors

The Baltic Sea washes the shores of several countries: Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. It has four bays: Finnish, Bothnian, Riga and Curonian. The latter is separated from the sea by a strip of land - the Curonian Spit, which is a national natural park and is protected by the state. Interestingly, this natural reserve is divided between two states: Russia and Lithuania.

Inhabitants

The Baltic Sea is rich in seafood. They are mined in the Kaliningrad region and European countries. The water here is not as salty as in other seas. Therefore, some scientists conditionally divide the inhabitants of the Baltic Sea into freshwater and marine. The bays are mainly inhabited by freshwater fish. The sea one is located far from the shore. In the Baltic there is:

Salaka. This small fish rarely grows more than 25 cm. It is the main commercial fish of the Baltic Sea, approximately half of the total catch comes from it. Herring is smoked, fried and canned.

Baltic sprat. A very common fish in Europe, one of the well-known names is “European sprat”. Sprat is smaller than herring, an adult grows no more than 15 cm. This fish is versatile in preparation, like herring, but most often it is used to make canned food.
Cod. This sea meat is rich in protein and minerals, it is a good source of B vitamins. Cod meat also contains a lot of niacin, which is useful for liver diseases. It grows up to 1 meter long, the largest individuals can reach a size of up to 2 meters, but this happens very rarely. Cod is loved in many countries around the world; there are a huge number of recipes for preparing dishes from it; a special delicacy is cod liver preserved in oil. Cod is one of the most delicious marine inhabitants of the Baltic Sea.

Flounder. This is a sea bottom fish with a bizarre flat shape. Its most memorable feature is its flat body and eyes located on one side, so it is impossible to confuse the flounder with another fish. The scales of this fish are rough like sandpaper. On average, flounder lives 5 years and grows up to 40 cm in length. It has white, tasty, tender meat, although when cooked it gives off a specific smell that not everyone may like. To get rid of discomfort during cooking, you need to remove the skin from the fish. Flounder meat contains proteins and beneficial amino acids that are well absorbed by the body. Flounder is considered a dietary fish.

Acne. This amazing inhabitant of the Baltic Sea is included in the list for a reason. It is found in all reservoirs of the Kaliningrad region. You can catch eels not only in sea water, but also in freshwater rivers. Externally, the eel looks like a snake, has a long body and swims, wriggling like snakes. An adult grows up to 1.5 m in length and weighs about 2 kg. Eel meat contains proteins, fats and carbohydrates, and is also a source of omega-3. The most common method of preparing eel is smoking.

Perch. A very bony and tenacious fish, it can live up to 15 years. Meat can be stored for a long time and contains many vitamins and nutrients.

Valuable fish

Salmon. This is a fish from the salmon family; Atlantic salmon, which is sometimes called “Baltic”, is found in the lightly salted waters of the Baltic. This type of “noble” sea fish is popularly known as “salmon”, it is quite large, an adult male can reach a length of more than 1.5 m. The taste of salmon meat is tender and buttery, the color varies from light pink to red. Salmon fillet contains virtually no bones, so it is popular among those who do not like fish for fear of swallowing a small bone. Many dishes are prepared from this fish, including the well-known red salmon caviar, which appears on our tables on special occasions.
Smelt. Surprisingly, the well-known smelt belongs to the salmon family. It is generally accepted that this fish is not valuable, despite the fact that it is caught in large quantities in the Baltic Sea. Smelt meat is rich in iron and fluorine; doctors recommend that older people include it in their diet.

Vendace. This small fish is also from the salmon family; its peculiarity is that it lives exclusively in the waters of the Baltic Sea. Vendace is a noble fish and is therefore considered a valuable raw material. She is loved in Europe and Scandinavian countries. In many regions of Russia, vendace is protected and you cannot just catch it.
Whitefish. Fish of the salmon family is considered a valuable commercial fish and has more than 40 species. Despite the fact that whitefish belongs to the salmon family, its meat is white and very fatty. Because of this feature, whitefish meat is not stored for long, so it is consumed or salted immediately after catching.

Mollusks, crustaceans and jellyfish

In addition to the listed fish, the Baltic waters are inhabited by mollusks, squid, small crustaceans and bottom fish. The mitten crab, which appeared here relatively recently, is very rare. Jellyfish are also found in the Baltic Sea; the largest, the cyanea, lives near the waters of Denmark. The rest of the space is inhabited by the harmless Aurelia, an inhabitant of the Baltic Sea, whose photo is not as frightening as the one presented above.

Mammals

Of the mammals in the Baltic Sea, only three species of seals live:

Tyuvyak (gray seal).
Nerpa (common seal).
Harbour porpoise.

Dangerous inhabitants

There are no dangerous inhabitants in the Baltic Sea; among the sharks you can only find the katrana - a small shark with spikes on its fins, it is not dangerous to humans. It does not swim to the Russian shores; it lives in the Danish straits, where the Baltic Sea connects with the North Sea.

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Slide captions:

Inhabitants of the Baltic Sea: Atlantic herring (herring), Baltic sprat, cod, flounder, salmon, eel, smelt, vendace, whitefish, perch), Baltic seal. Baltic Sea Location of the Baltic Sea: between the shores of Northern and Central Europe. Area of the Baltic Sea: 419 thousand square meters. km. Average depth of the Baltic Sea: 70 m. Greatest depth of the Baltic Sea: 459 m. Average water temperatures: 1-3 °C in February, up to 20 °C in August. Salinity of the Baltic Sea: 6-8 ‰.

Salaka Salaka is the most abundant sea fish in our waters. This is the Baltic form (subspecies) of the Atlantic herring. Herring is half its size (usual length is 16-20 cm) and has fewer vertebrae. In addition to small herring, in the Gulf of Finland there are large fish, up to 40 cm long, called giant stremlings. Stremlings are considered a special, fast-growing race of Baltic herring.

Baltic salmon The most famous species of salmon. This large, beautiful fish reaches one and a half meters in length and 39 kg in weight. The body of the salmon is covered with small silvery scales, and there are no spots below the lateral line. Salmon in the sea feeds on small fish and crustaceans, and when entering rivers to spawn, they stop feeding and lose a lot of weight. The mating plumage is expressed in the darkening of the body and the appearance of red and orange spots on the sides of the body and head.

TROUT TROUT is a White Sea-Baltic subspecies that lives in the Baltic Sea basin. Order: Salmoniformes - Salmoniformes Family: Salmonids - Salmonidae The brown trout population in the Baltic Sea basin is declining in numbers, represented by the anadromous form, lake trout (lake trout) and brook trout. Some enthusiasts breed trout at home using cast iron baths.

Cod Cod, or Atlantic cod, is a fish of the cod family. Body length – up to 1.8 m; The fishery is dominated by fish 40-80 cm long, aged 3-10 years. There are 3 dorsal fins, 2 anal fins, and a small fleshy antennae on the chin. The color of the back is from greenish olive to brown with small brown specks, the belly is white.

FLOUSE Of the very large group of flounder-like fish in the Gulf of Finland within the Leningrad region, you can find two species of flounder belonging to two different families. First of all, this is river (or, as it is sometimes called, rough) flounder, which belongs to the family of flatfishes proper, which includes many species and genera, including the largest of the flounders - halibuts.

EEL The reservoirs of the Baltic basin are home to an interesting fish - the European freshwater, the so-called river eel. It belongs to the only family of the eel order that lives in fresh waters. All other eels (22 families, approximately 350 species) are marine fish that constantly live in the seas and oceans at great depths. The European freshwater eel has the same snake-shaped body as all eels and swims curved like a snake. It has no pelvic fins.

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The name of the Curonian Lagoon comes from the ancient Baltic tribe of Curonians. The bay is separated from the sea. Most of it belongs to Russia, and in the north it is 415 square meters. km of water surface belongs to Lithuania.

History of origin

Several hundred years ago, the Curonian Bay was an open bay of the Baltic Sea and extended into the land for quite a long distance. Its depth was about 20 meters. The spit separating this gigantic lagoon was created due to the gradual application of silt and sand by sea currents.

As a result, the Eastern coast increased towards the bay by tens of kilometers, and sand dunes formed on the Curonian Spit itself. This barrier gradually grew, dividing the bay more and more, and the Curonian Lagoon was filled with water brought by numerous rivers (the largest of them is the Neman). The water became less and less salty, and freshwater fish began to appear in it, while marine species, on the contrary, disappeared. Due to the large amount of sand, the depth became much shallower.

The bay has existed in its current form for 4,000 years. At that time, the braid had already reached its full length. On the banks and on the spit itself lived people of the ancient Curonian tribe.

general description

The area of the bay belonging to Russia is 1118 square meters. km. Its depth is small and averages 3.7 meters. But there are depressions where the depth reaches 6 meters.

The length of the Curonian Lagoon is about 100 km. It is separated from the sea by the Curonian Spit. And in the area of Klaipeda there is a small strait that connects the bay with the Baltic Sea. in the bay is approximately 15 cm above sea level, causing the volume difference to flow into the sea. In the Curonian Lagoon itself, the water is fresh, the salinity is no more than 8 ppm.

Undersea world

The Curonian Bay is a shallow lagoon of the Baltic Sea with slightly salted, almost fresh water. The bottom has a cauldron shape with slight slopes. The wealth of aquatic vegetation in the lagoon is represented by numerous thickets of reeds, cattails, and reeds.

Not far from the shore, several species of elodea, water lilies, lilies, aquatic moss, arrowhead, and hornwort grow vigorously. By the way, the abundance of aquatic plants is important, since many fish lay their eggs here during spawning.

Thanks to underwater thickets, all types of fish (both juveniles and adults) can find food and shelter. Zooplankton is food for almost all species of fish living in the bay: cladocerans, copepods, daphnia, various worms, etc. Plankton and bottom organisms are also a rich food source.

The rich food supply has led to the fact that among the inhabitants of the Curonian Lagoon there are more than 50 species of fish. They are divided into 3 groups:

Those species of fish that live in the bay permanently (residential fish). The most numerous in their group and of commercial importance are: pike, perch, roach, and smelt.

Fish that come only to spawn (migratory), such as whitefish and smelt.

Living in rivers, but sometimes entering the bay (river fish). They are few in number and are rarely caught. These are, for example, catfish, white-eye and loach.

Also in the waters of the Curonian Lagoon there are lampreys (two species at once: river and sea), as well as the common newt.

Curonian Spit

A narrow, long, saber-shaped sand spit along the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon is called the Curonian Spit. It stretches from Zelenogradsk (Kaliningrad region) to Klaipeda (Lithuania). In 2000, the Curonian Spit was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Geographically, it is located in Russia and Lithuania. On its Russian part there is the Curonian Spit National Natural Park, the villages of Rybachy, Lesnoy and Morskoy. And since 1991, there has also been a national park on the Lithuanian side of the spit.

The natural diversity of the described area is unique due to its unusual landscape and microclimate. There are pine forests, the trunks of trees growing there have intricate shapes (“dancing forest”), sand dunes, lichen fields, deciduous forests.

The national park has its own very strict visiting rules, since the nature of the Curonian Spit is easily vulnerable. Any human influence can cause significant damage. Therefore, access and travel here are limited. It is prohibited to burn fires here, and it is possible to pitch tents and park cars only in special places. It is recommended to take walks along the sufficient number of boardwalks available.

Curonian Spit as a tourist site

For the Curonian Bay and the sand spit along it are the most interesting objects. The buildings of all the villages located on the coast are very interesting. They are distinguished by traditional Baltic architecture: unique wood carvings, original color combinations, and tiled roofs. For example, a settlement called Morskoe has perfectly preserved all the features traditionally inherent in the Curonian fishing way of life.

To take a fascinating walk along the waters of the bay, just buy a boat ticket. You can combine such a holiday with fishing. The Curonian Lagoon is quite suitable for swimming in summer. The water temperature in July-August (the most suitable months for a beach holiday) is 19-19.5ºС. Weather conditions are favorable for recreation from May to October.

Fishing on the Curonian Lagoon

The described places also attract fishermen. Perch, pike, and pike perch can be caught here all year round, fueling the hunting excitement of spinning anglers. For lovers of fishing with float tackle, the Kaliningrad Bay and the Curonian Lagoon are the most visited reservoirs in the Kaliningrad region. The most popular fish species for them are bream, silver bream, and crucian carp. Bream leaves the Kaliningrad Bay for fattening in the Baltic Sea, but lives in the Curonian Sea for the whole year.

Perch in the bay is famous for its large size; it can be caught with both fishing rods and spinning rods. The best places for fishing are the mouths of the Deyma and Matrosovka rivers and sand spits.

Main types of fish

The fish of the Curonian Lagoon is very diverse, including both permanent residents (bream, roach, pike, pike perch, perch) and seasonal ones that come to spawn (smelt, brown trout, whitefish). Baltic whitefish have been in the bay since autumn. In winter, he fattens up on smelt and smelt and gains weight. The Curonian Bay is its spawning site, which occurs in the autumn-winter period. It is at this time that whitefish are available for fishing. No commercial aggregations of whitefish are formed in the sea.

The main types of fish that interest amateur fishermen are: perch, roach, pike, eel; along the coast you can often catch quite large crucian carp.

Curonian Lagoon in winter

The arrival of winter significantly reduces the number of tourists. The water in the bay cools quickly (in September its temperature is 16ºС, by November it drops to 6-8ºС), cold winds blow almost constantly. But the winter landscapes of the Curonian Spit still remain attractive. Fans of active recreation and winter fishing are frequent visitors to the bay with the arrival of frost and the beginning of ice formation.

Ice on the Curonian Lagoon lasts from 2 to 5 months in winter. Around February, there is an official ban on people going out on the ice, as its thickness becomes dangerous and is only about 5 cm.

Legends and tales

The Curonian Lagoon and the Curonian Spit are mysterious places surrounded by mysticism in folklore. There are many legends and tales about them. The most popular and important is the saga of the giantess Neringa, created by the goddess Laima. The legends about the “dancing forest”, “black sails”, the cat from the tavern, etc. are also interesting - all of them are reflected in modern tourist sites.

It is very different from all its world brethren. First of all, the water salinity level in it does not exceed 7-8 percent. Moreover, we are talking about these indicators only in the southwestern part of the Baltic. In the central water area this level drops to 6 percent, and in the Gulf of Finland, Bothnia and Riga - even to 2-3 percent.

Of course, the Baltic Sea cannot be called fresh. But it is quite obvious that it differs from the salty waters of other seas and oceans (the average salinity on the planet is about 35 percent) as day and night. This factor left its mark not only on the nature of coastal areas, but also on the composition of the inhabitants of the Baltic depths.

The very low degree of salinity (especially in the northern and northwestern parts of the Baltic) has led to the fact that, along with marine fish, river fish also thrive in the Baltic Sea. The most common species are perch, bream, whitefish and grayling. But in general, freshwater inhabitants of the Baltic do not go far into the sea, preferring to stay close to water that is not at all salty. Therefore, gudgeons, roach, pike, pike perch or ruffe can be found mainly in the immediate vicinity of rivers where they flow into the Baltic Sea.

By the way, fishermen from countries with access to the Baltic (and this includes, in addition to Russia, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) use this fact very competently and in certain seasons, seiners do not even have to go far to sea to return with a rich catch traditionally river fish.

However, in deep areas with saltier water, the composition of the inhabitants of the Baltic changes significantly. Here you can find cod, mackerel, many types of herring (along with sprat, it is the main fishing interest) and even flounder, gobies, eelpout and sea trout.

Back in the middle of the last century, it was believed that seals had completely disappeared from the Baltic Sea, which had been mercilessly exterminated for many years. But in recent years (especially in the summer) they have begun to be noticed again.

This mainly happens off the coast of Sweden, Finland and Russia.

The appearance of seals in the Baltic Sea again became possible only thanks to a complete ban on hunting them and a significantly improved environmental situation.

The ringed seal lives in the Baltic. This seal got its name from the pattern on its fur - light rings with a dark frame.

Interestingly, ringed seals do not form colonies, preferring to live alone. So it’s unlikely that anyone will be able to see a whole herd of these cute animals, although occasionally they gather in small flocks. However, even in this case, Baltic seals behave separately.

By the way, Baltic seals are considered the largest of this species in the world. They can reach a size of 140 centimeters, and adult males weigh up to a hundredweight! Often, lately, they go to the beaches to take a break from being in the water for a long time.

In 2000, according to experts, about 10 thousand ringed seals lived in the Baltic. Now their number (due to the fact that seals have no natural enemies in this region) is constantly increasing and has already reached 25-30 thousand. But compared to data from a hundred years ago, this is sheer nonsense. At that time, more than 100 thousand of these cute animals lived in the Baltic Sea.

But in addition to commercial fish and harmless animals, the Baltic Sea is also home to much more dangerous creatures. The sea dragon, a small but very poisonous fish, is found here (albeit quite rarely). Her injection causes, at best, itchy skin, and at worst, paralysis, interruptions in heart function, and even death. One thing is good - it can be found much less often in the Baltic Sea than in the Black or Atlantic. Another dangerous inhabitant of the depths is the sea cat (it looks like a stingray and also has a sharp spike at the end of its tail), a poisonous snake fish.

Few people know that there are also sharks in the Baltic. Moreover, there are as many as 31 species of them, together with related cartilaginous fish! But do not be afraid - these are small sharks that are more afraid of humans than they are of them. At least that's what environmental activists say. And in Sweden they even officially banned shark fishing.

Somehow it turned out that of the sharks in the Baltic Sea, only two species are represented: the ubiquitous katran and herring sharks.

And if the katran is of only decorative interest to people, neither as a hunter nor as a prey the katran is not interesting to humans, then the herring shark can engage in cannibalism.

What can we say about the katran if we don’t focus on the fact that it’s just a beautiful small predatory fish? He doesn't attack people, he just doesn't see the point in it. People do not use katran for culinary purposes for the reason that its meat is too saturated with urea, and therefore it is not worth the candle. Let it float.

And the herring shark is a relative of the mako shark, which, according to the latest scientific data, is more closely related to the megalodon than the great white shark. This means that the herring shark is potentially dangerous to humans. She's fast and aggressive, so don't mess with her anyway. Although they don't often swim into the Baltic Sea from the Atlantic Basin, if you spot these silvery silhouettes in the water from your boat, it's best to stay away from them.

True, it can be noted with regret that the Atlantic herring shark is no longer such a frequent visitor to northern waters, but this is due to the fact that it has become an endangered species. This is how the glory of the world passes, as the ancients said.

When going fishing, think about what kind of float rod equipment for crucian carp is better. If you visit our website, you will be pleasantly surprised by the large selection available.

Baltic jaws

Shark Days were celebrated in Europe. Towards the date, the Baltic media burst out with stories, the meaning of which: the year is not far off when our Baltic Sea will literally be swarming with sharks. The cause is global warming. Some unnamed Lithuanian scientists allegedly said that in the near future frightening fins could be observed in our area.

There are more than 4,000 species of sharks in the world. Many of them are able to live in water whose temperature does not reach 5 degrees above zero. The Baltic Sea warms up well in summer to 1520 degrees or more. According to the Lithuanians, scientific facts also indicate that our sea will soon become suitable for the bloodthirsty inhabitants of the oceans. Thus, a dead swordfish was discovered on the Klaipeda beach in the 1990s.

Are we facing a shark attack? What do not anonymous, but very real researchers say about this? As it turns out, fear has big eyes. Riga biologist Andris Kalnins just laughed when he heard my question about a television story dedicated to the smaller toothy brothers.

According to him, in the near foreseeable future, residents of the Baltic states who decide to swim are unlikely to fear for their lives. The main barrier for sharks is not temperature at all, but the degree of salinity of the water. The Baltic Sea contains 6 times less salt than the World Ocean. And large predators desperately need salt; salty water makes it easier for a heavy body to hold on. After all, sharks don’t even have an air bladder. They are forced to be in motion all the time, otherwise they will simply fall to the bottom. In addition, the water in the Baltic is too dirty, because the channel of exchange with the World Ocean, the Danish Straits, is too narrow.

If you take a little liquid from our sea and pour it into your home pool, the container will immediately begin to become overgrown with all sorts of nasty things. But fish pass water through membranes. In addition, there are areas in the Baltic Sea where oxygen levels are extremely low, which means that all living things die. Cod is in big trouble right now. Floating eggs are often carried into dead zones, which, alas, increase in number every year.

In a word, in the near future we will be faced not with an invasion of sharks, but with the complete disappearance of the remaining inhabitants of the Baltic. And the appearance of all sorts of nasty things with a purple tint along the shores is further confirmation of this.

The seas washing the Russian coast have traditionally been considered completely safe from the point of view of the possibility of being attacked by a shark.

Western sea reservoirs and the waters of the Arctic Ocean are not the favorite habitats of dangerous predators. The Black, Baltic and Azov seas shelter in their waters the common katran, which threatens the unwary fisherman only with the prickly spines on the dorsal fin.

In addition to the katran, the Black Sea is visited by the even less dangerous common cat shark. which in warm weather sails from the Mediterranean Sea. This is a small species of bottom sharks, individuals of which only in exceptional cases reach a meter in length and weigh a little more than a kilogram.

To be fair, it should be noted that dubious information appeared in the press about the capture of a goblin shark in the waters of the Black Sea. and also at the mouth of the Neva the herring shark. But this information is not documented and is highly doubtful. Therefore, we can safely say that in the seas of the Atlantic basin adjacent to the shores of Russia there are no other sharks except the katran and catfish. Both of these species are not dangerous to humans.

The seas of the Arctic also did not react too kindly to the attempts of toothy robbers to penetrate their waters. Only the polar shark feels like a full-fledged mistress here, and the ubiquitous katran and herring sharks found in the White and Barents Seas. The waters of the Barents Sea are often visited by the giant shark, a planktivorous representative of cartilaginous fish.

Sharks are somewhat richer in the waters of the Far Eastern seas of Russia, especially the Sea of Japan. The presence of more than a dozen different species of sharks has been noted here, including predators dangerous to humans.

It is quite possible that in depths inaccessible to swimmers and divers, other rare species of sharks are also found - the frilled shark. goblin. comb-toothed and others. In the depths of the ocean, the water temperature is relatively stable and these predators may well violate our maritime state borders.

The greatest danger to humans in the Sea of Japan are the great white shark and mako, which are included in the list of the most dangerous species. The giant hammerhead is potentially dangerous. salmon, sharptooth mustel and gray shortfin shark. Sometimes the fox shark behaves quite boldly in the presence of divers, but it is not found off the coast.

The events of the summer of 2011, when sharks bit our compatriots in Primorye, removed the shark-safe status from Russian seas, and forced us to take a closer look at the issue of ensuring the safety of Russians’ favorite vacation spots.

Sources: www.akyla.info, scubascuta.com, akully.ru, morefishes.ru, newsland.com

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