Sea & coast

Extensions of the Baltic Sea basin delimit about one third of Finland's borders: on the south, the Gulf of Finland is shared with Estonia and Russia, while on the west, the broad Bothnian Sea and Bothnian Bay partly separate Finland from Sweden. Compared to oceans and other seas, the Baltic is shallow and has a rather low salinity, especially in its northernmost part where rivers bring a continuous influx of fresh water. Finland boasts Europe's biggest archipelago, mainly around the city of Turku, including the islands of Ahvenanmaa, close to Sweden. The shallow waters allow for dozens of thousands of islands to emerge from the sea, desolate and treeless rocks or bigger patches of land covered by forest. The photographs presented in this gallery focus on the Gulf of Finland and on the archipelago.

The part of the Finnish population that lives on the south-east coastline or in the archipelago has a distinct "marine" sub-culture, shaped by both the proximity of the sea and by history: it is where most of the Swedish-speaking minority lives.