Pärnu Bay ( et, Pärnu laht) is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a nar ...

in the northeastern part of the Gulf of Livonia (Gulf of Riga), in southern

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...

Geography

It has an area of 411 km².Pärnu River Basin Management Plan
Retrieved May 8, 2015. The maximum depth in the mouth of the bay is 12 m. The banks are low-lying, sandy in some places. The

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...

of the water in the bay is 0-0,8 ppm in the spring and up to 5.5 ppm in autumn. There are several rivers flowing into the gulf, the largest is the

Pärnu River Pärnu () is the fourth largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of ...

. The bay is also Estonia's most important coastal fishing area.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parnu Bay Bays of Estonia Gulf of Riga Bays of the Baltic Sea Geography of Pärnu