Skagerrak
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Skagerrak is a gulf of the North Sea, bounded by Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. |
The
Skagerrak strait runs between
Norway and the southwest coast of
Sweden and the
Jutland peninsula of
Denmark, connecting the
North Sea and the
Kattegat strait, which leads to the
Baltic Sea.
Skagerrak is an
assimilation of Skagen-rak, named after
Skagen, the northernmost tip of
Jutland. There is no evidence of the name in ancient sources.
Rak is identical to Swedish
rak (pronounced rawk), "straight"; i.e., Skagerrak is a stretch of straight sailing in the vicinity of Skagen. The ultimate source is the
Proto-Indo-European root *reg-, "straight". If the Danish word
rak "rubble, riff-raff" is used, Skagerrak could be intepreted as "the harasser of Skagen", referring to the changeable maritime weather conditions.
Kattegat is ancient, preceding the
north Germanic languages as the source of Latin Codanus, which appears to have meant the combined waterways of Skagerrak and Kattegat. Kattegat, however, is obscene and therefore taboo in polite society. Skagerrak must be a substitution at some time after the dissimilation of north Germanic.
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Straight sailing, middle of Skagerrak |
The Skagerrak is roughly triangular in shape, measuring 240 km in length, and between 80 and 140 km in width. It deepens toward the Norwegian coast, reaching over 700 metres at the
Norwegian Trench. Some ports along the Skagerrak are
Oslo and
Kristiansand in
Norway and
Uddevalla and
Strömstad in
Sweden.
The Skagerrak has a
salinity of 30
practical salinity units. The volume available to biomass is about 3600 km², including a wide variety of habitats from the sandbanks to Sweden and Denmark to the deeps of the Norwegian trench.
The Skagerrak provides a habitat for approximately 2000 marine species, many of them adapted to its waters. For example, a variety of
Atlantic cod called the Skagerrak cod spawns off the Norwegian coast. The eggs are buoyant and the hatchlings feed on
zooplankton. Juveniles sink to the bottom where they have a shorter maturity cycle (2 years). They do not migrate but remain local to Norwegian
fjords.
The variety of habitats and the large volume of
plankton on the surface support a prolific marine life. Energy moves from the top to the bottom according to
Vinogradov's ladder of migrations; that is, some species are
benthic and others
pelagic but there are graded layers in which species move vertically for short distances. In addition, some species are
benthopelagic, moving between surface and bottom.
The benthic species include
Coryphaenoides rupestris,
Argentina silus,
Etmopterus spinax,
Chimaera monstrosa and
Glyptocephalus cynoglossus. On the top are
Clupea harengus,
Scomber scombrus,
Sprattus sprattus. Some species that move between are
Pandalus borealis,
Sabinea sarsi,
Etmopterus spinax.
Image:Heringsschwarm.gif|Clupea harengusImage:Scsco u0.gif|Scomber scombrusImage:Pandborealisind.jpg|Pandalus borealisImage:Oslo from holmenkollen.jpg|OslofjordIn both world wars, the Skagerrak was strategically very important for
Germany. One of the biggest sea battles of
World War I, the
Battle of Jutland, also known as the Battle of the Skagerrak, took place there
May 31 to
June 1,
1916. The importance of controlling this waterway, the only access to the Baltic, provided the motivation for the German invasion of
Denmark and
Norway during
World War II.
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Skagerrak Deep-water Fish Assemblage
