Archipelago Sea
The Archipelago Sea (Finnish Saaristomeri, swedish Skärgårdshavet ) is a part of the Baltic Sea off the southwest coast of Finland. The archipelago is located between the Finnish mainland and the archipelago of Åland, in the south it is from the Gulf of Finland, bounded on the north by the Gulf of Bothnia. The sea area is riddled with thousands of islets and cliffs. The archipelago in the Archipelago Sea is commonly referred to the city of Turku ( Åbo swedish ) as " Turku archipelago " (Finnish Turun Saaristo, swedish Åbo skärgård ). On the islands of the archipelago sea live a total of about 33,000 people.
Geography
The number of islands in the archipelago is difficult to estimate, because a majority of them are only small rocks. Estimates range 20000-50000 Islands. The archipelago can be roughly divided into the inner and outer archipelago, the outer archipelago made up of smaller, mostly uninhabited islands. Through the postglacial land uplift, the water depth is reduced in the area of marine archipelago of about 0.5 cm per year. From shallows islands, islands grow together. Large areas which today are part of the mainland, were formerly part of the archipelago.
Population
On the archipelago all year about 33,000 people live. In the southern part of the archipelago area, the Åboland area, lived mostly Finland Sweden, the northern part is Finnish-speaking.
Economy and infrastructure
The traditional source of income in the Archipelago Sea is fishing. Agriculture can be carried out on the small, rocky archipelago only to a small extent, even if the mild climate favored farming. The tourism is developing for the archipelago increasingly becoming an important economic factor.
The islands of the Archipelago Sea are connected by the Archipelago Trail on ferries and bridges. Shorter ferry routes served by the free yellow ferries of the Finnish Road Office, on longer journeys run the fee- white ferries of the Maritime Office. In cold winters official ice roads between some islands are set up on the frozen sea.