The paper addresses environmental problems of the shelf and coastal areas in the Arctic seas. Irregular distribution of the contaminants is cased by various determinants including among others geomorphological and oceanological factors. The shelf and the coastal regions is perhaps the most important transit areas within the marine ecosystems. Being the transfer zone they represent areas of the maximal biodiversity level, high biological productivity as well as the largest oil and gas deposit areas. Besides that, it is the region of the intensive navigation and shipping, maritime port construction, i.e. it is exposed to the maximal anthropogenic pressure. Hence, the environmental sustainability of the marine coasts in the shelf areas is of high importance.The sources of the pollutants and their spacial distribution in the water area are discussed in this paper.