Main threats to biodiversity:

+ pollution by oil producing industry
+ wastes from sea vessels and ports,
+ municipal and agricultural drainage,
+ activities at military sites,
+ mining in coastal zone,
+ legal and illegal fishery,
+ technogenic disasters,
+ invasions of alien species,
+ river flow regulation,
+ inefficient network of nature reserves ..

The exact number of flora and fauna species in Russian seas is not still counted. The seas and coasts are habitats of many rare and disappearing species of plants and animals listed in the Red Book (the State report on the status of environment mentioned 17 Red list invertebrate species, 15 fish species, about 20 bird species and 29 species and subspecies of mammals).

According to the WWF-Russia data the most productive are Barents, Bering and Okhotsk seas. Productivity of the Western-Kamchatka shelf it the highest in the world – 20 ton per sq. km. Russian seas possess the greatest resources of sturgeon and salmon fishes. The Far East seas have great resources of the the economically valuable species like pollack, Pacific salmons, Kamchatka crab.

Coastal shorelines of the Black, Azov, Caspian and Japanese seas play a great role as places for nesting, bird stops during migrations and winterings for sea and waterfowl species. Coasts are represented by all zonal types of ecosystems - from polar deserts and Arctic tundras to Far East broadleaved forests, semideserts of the Caspian coast in Dagestan and xerophilic forests of the Mediterranean type at the Russian coast of Black sea.

The most unique marine and coastal ecosystems in Russia are: relic ecosystem of the lake Mogilnyi, Chaun bay in Arctic region, shallow hydrothermal ecosystems in gulf of Kraternaya in Kuriles islands, insular low-boreal groupings in high boreal regions (Busse lagoon in the Southern Sakhalin, sea mammals habitats on Komandorskii island and Seal islands (Sea of Okhotsk), areas of subtropical marine fauna in the extreme South of Primorski Krai, including islands in Peter the Great bay, gulf Posieta and Gamov peninsula.

Coastal and marine ecosystems are subject to the strong technogenic impact. The most vulnerable regions are Kola bay in Barents, Ob, Lena, Yenisei, Kolyma mouths in Arctic, Peter the Great bay, sections of the Sakhalin shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk, which are considerably polluted. Ecosystems of the Caspian, Azov and Black seas suffer due to the consequences of the river flow regulation (Volga, Don, Dnepr) and invasion of alien species.

Ecosystems and habitats that require special attention are:

• Baltic Sea;
• coastal areas of the Barents Sea;
• breeding grounds of marine mammals on the coastline and islands of the Arctic and
• Pacific Oceans;
• seabird colonies on the coastline and islands of Arctic and Pacific Oceans;
• coastal areas of southern Primorye and Sakhalin Island;
• Caspian Sea;
• Sea of Azov;
• Black Sea.

 
The section "Marine ecosystems" of our portal integrates resources on fulfillment of the CBD thematic program "Biodiversity of marine and coastal ecosystems" at national level.