Is Barents Sea the world’s cleanest

Russian scientists told the ITAR-TASS news agency in the Arctic city of Murmansk the waters off the northwestern coast of Russia are clean.

In spite of intensive fishing in the Barents Sea and many concerns about pollution and contamination of its waters by nuclear and industrial waste, the scientists maintain the Barents Sea, off the coast of northern Norway and western Siberia, still ranks among the cleanest in the circumpolar region.

Scientists from the Russian Polar Fishing and Oceanography Research Institute looked at the health of the Barents marine life. They also measured levels of 50 of the most widespread chemical compounds known to pollute the marine environment.

They say pollution of the Barents Sea is so insignificant that it can “deservedly claim to be one of the cleanest seas of the world.”