The scenario of a severe oil accident in the Baltic Sea is omnipresent. In case of a serious oiltanker accident all coasts of the Baltic Sea would be threatened, economic activities possibly spoiled for years and its precious nature even irreversibly damaged. The Baltic Sea is a unique and extremely sensitive ecosystem. Large number of islands, routes that are difficult to navigate, slow water exchange and long annual periods of icecover render this sea especially sensitive. At the same time the Baltic Sea has some of the most dense maritime traffic in the world. During the recent decades the traffic in the Baltic area has not only increased, but the nature of the traffic has also changed rapidly. One important change is the the increase of oil transportation due to new oil terminals in Russia. But not only the number of tankers has increased but also their size has grown. The risk of an oil accident in the Gulf of Finland will increase fourfold with the increase in oil transport in the Gulf of Finland from the 22 million tons annually in 1995 to 90 million tons in 2005. At the same time, the cruises between Helsinki and Tallinn have increased tremendously, and this route is crossing the main routes of vessels transporting hazardous substances. WWF and its Baltic partners see that the whole Baltic Sea needs the official status of a "Particularly Sensitive Sea Area" (PSSA) to tackle the environmental effects and threats associated with increasing maritime traffic, especially oil shipping, in the area. A PSSA is an area which due to its ecological, economic, cultural or scientific significance and its vulnerability to international shipping activity needs special protection. The whole Baltic Sea fulfills such criteria. PSSA status, designated by IMO, (International Maritime Organisation) can be used to protect a variety of marine and coastal habitats as well as marine wildlife, and to improve maritime safety. Due to the fact that the main shipping route passing through the Baltic Sea, from the Sound to the Primorks harbour in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, plying a lot of important areas for seals, fish and sea birds WWF suggests that the Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Information System (VTMIS) including Automatic Identification System (AIS) and traffic separation schemes should be established for the whole Baltic Sea. In the case of an big oil accident a common combating infrastructure of the Baltic Sea states and enough emergency capacities must be in place. International collaboration is as crucial for environmentally sound shipping as it has been for nature conservation. The Baltic Sea PSSA could be an important and needed next step to do both. Our common goal should be to enable a lasting, sustainable coexistence of shipping and unique nature in the Baltic Sea. WWF wants to highlight the fact that PSSAs are not simply a reflection of high ecological importance but also protect sites of high socio-economic importance and educational value against harmful effects caused by international shipping. The list of prioritized areas with need of additional protective measures in the Baltic Sea is included in this proposal. WWF and its partners wants also to stress the urgent need to ban single hull vessels to enter the Baltic Sea in a few years from now, i.e. well ahead of 2015 as decided by IMO in 2001.