North Sea — Track Nordic Baltic Eight

02 — Context

A strategic sea basin

The North Sea is a relatively shallow shelf sea, yet also one of the busiest and most intensively used seas in the world — for shipping, offshore wind, oil & gas, and fisheries. The Dutch Continental Shelf (DCS) covers roughly 10% of the basin.

Surface area: ~575k km²
Water mass: ~54k km³
DCS (Dutch part): ~57k km²
Salinity: 34–35‰
Fish production: 5,000 kg
Biodiversity: −20%

Shipping & energy — intensive use for offshore wind, oil and gas platforms and seaports; a pillar of the Dutch coastal economy.
Wrecks as reefs — hundreds of shipwrecks on the seabed function as artificial reefs and attract marine life.
Monitoring — Rijkswaterstaat (Sea Level Monitor), the Noordzeeloket and the Digital North Sea provide up-to-date maps and measurement data.

Sources · Compendium for the Environment · Noordzeeloket · Rijkswaterstaat

03 — Key topics

Why the North Sea matters