Centuries ago, a list titled “The Cleanest Seas in the World” could have been pretty impressive. However, thanks to humanity, the picture has changed today, and for the worse, and this process, unfortunately, is progressing.
Emerging industries and increased tourism availability are doing their job. Technical waste and a huge amount of garbage have become an integral part of the seas. However, the hopes of people to plunge into the waters of the clear sea do not leave them. What is the cleanest sea in the world, and what is the cleanliness of the seas that wash the coast of Russia? In this article we will try to find the answer to these important questions.
The cleanest seas in the world
Before telling about the cleanest sea in Russia, we will provide a brief information about the best seas of the world. Unfortunately, swimming in the cleanest waters of the planet is quite difficult for various reasons. Judge for yourself:
- The Weddela Sea, the cleanest in the world, is located off West Antarctica. This purest natural reservoir is covered with ice and icebergs all year round, therefore it is at the same time one of the coldest in the whole world (-1.8 ° С - water temperature in winter).
- The Sargasso Sea is the second cleanest. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it has no coasts, and its borders are indicated approximately, correlating with ocean currents.
- The Dead Sea is more like a lake, but because of the increased salinity of the water it is still called the sea. Life in its waters is impossible even for bacteria, and a fish that accidentally gets into it dies almost instantly. People can swim in it, but it's quite difficult to do it - water immediately pushes to the surface.
South Russian seas
Among the warm seas washing the coast of Russia, the most popular are Azov and Black. How clean are they? In this regard, things are worse here than in the world.
- The Black Sea belongs to the polluted seas. On its Russian coast, it is better to relax in places as far away from civilization as possible. A huge number of ports, developed shipping, discharges of industrial waste are the main factors that negatively affect the ecology of these places. In addition, at the bottom of the Black Sea there is a layer of hydrogen sulfide, formed, according to scientists, as a result of decomposition of living organisms at a time when sea waters flooded nearby territories. There is practically no life in this layer, and all living organisms of the sea are forced to dwell in its surface waters.
- The Sea of Azov is much smaller and warmer than the Black Sea. And it also has areas that are clean and heavily polluted, especially at the end of the beach season. With all this, it is almost not inferior in popularity to other seas.
Rating of the cleanest seas in Russia
There is no official rating for all Russian seas.
But in the framework of one of the ScanEx Center projects, the waters of 5 seas, the shores of which are adjacent to Russia, were studied. The studies were carried out using satellite imagery radar. The purpose of such an important project is to assess the environmental status of the Black, Baltic, Caspian, White, Okhotsk and Black Seas. After careful processing of more than fifty photographs, it was found that among them only Beloye did not have anthropogenic pollution. It is scientifically substantiated that this is the cleanest sea in Russia.
The media also made some attempt to identify the cleanest Russian sea through voting. After the survey, the following distribution of votes was obtained:
- Kara (formerly Narzem) sea - 37.5%;
- Caspian Sea - 12.5%;
- Barents - 12.5%;
- in Russia there are no clear seas - 37.5%.
It turns out that the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Baltic Sea, beloved by Russians, are not included in the list of such a rating at all.
White Sea
The cleanest sea to relax in Russia is the White Sea. This natural reservoir is quite well studied by Soviet and Russian scientists. In their opinion, in terms of purity this sea has no equal in Russia.
In the hot summer period, the water in it warms up quite well, and rest on its beaches differs little from the usual rest on the southern seas. Here you can enjoy not only the warm sun, getting a wonderful tan, but also swimming in the cleanest Russian sea waters. You can also combine beach vacations perfectly with a trip for mushrooms and berries and fishing. In summer, fur seals, seals and beluga whales from the cetaceus family come to the shores.
The cleanest sea in Russia, however, is also subject to anthropogenic impact. Factories and plants that produce paper, cardboard, pulp and lumber are located in river basins that feed the smallest and shallowest water in the north of the White Sea.
Particular interest and attention to its ecology arose in the spring of 1990. At that time, a huge number of small inhabitants (starfish, etc.) were thrown to the shore of the Gulf of Dvina by a storm, and the orange shaft formed then stretched for tens of kilometers along the edge of the surf.
The best beaches of Russia
The cleanest sea in Russia is the White Sea, but the largest number of the best beaches are located on the shores of the Black (Crimea) and Baltic (Kaliningrad Oblast) seas.
Turstat (an analytical agency) has published a rating of the best Russian beaches. The assessment was carried out in the following categories: level of comfort, purity of water, safety and the possibility of a quiet walk in the city.
So, the cleanest beaches of Russia (not only on the sea coasts):
- Imeretinsky (the city of Sochi) is the fifth-ranking beach of artificial origin, one of the best resorts on the Russian Black Sea coast.
- "Sudzhuk Spit" (Tsemesskaya Bay, Novorossiysk) - the fourth-place beach, is a magnificent bay, closed on all sides from the winds.
- "Dzhemetsky" (Anapa) - one of the best and cleanest beaches of the Black Sea coast of Russia, ranking third in the ranking, has a gentle even descent into the water.
- "Golden" (Crimea, Feodosia) - a huge 15-kilometer sandy strip about 100 meters wide.
- “Massandrovsky” (Crimea, Yalta) is the first beach in Crimea to earn the “blue flag” and occupying first place in the ranking.
