Balticsea 2020

Pike swim up the stream to the wetland!

A quarter of Sweden's wetlands have been lost through drainage, cultivation or lake level drawdown. Wetlands are important spawning and nursery areas for different animals, including pike. The wetlands provide shelter and food for the small pike fry during their first months in life.

Passenger ship sewage discharges into the Baltic Sea will be banned

Today HELCOM announced that IMO (The International Maritime Organization) decided to prohibit discharge of sewage into the Baltic Sea from passenger vessels.
Since spring 2015, it is prohibited for leisure boats to empty the sewage into the sea, rules that will start to apply for passenger ships in the Baltic Sea.

Congratulations Folke Rydén to the Baltic Sea Fund prize 2016!

Folke is rewarded for his documentary films that portray the threats to the Baltic Sea. Folke has produced four films supported by BalticSea2020: For Cod’s Sake, Dirty Waters, The Second Wave and Shipping Pollution.

The films have not only spread a deepened picture of the Baltic Sea's problems but also influenced decision makers to take action.

Major international research project to solve the problem of age determination in cod

Cod is an important species for the Baltic Sea, both as a top predator in the ecosystem and as a source of income for fisheries. Reliable estimates of the variation in population size are necessary in order to manage cod stocks; analyses of the cods’ age is vital. However, researchers have recently found it increasingly difficult to estimate the age of cod in the eastern Baltic, although this is a factor that must be considered when the European Commission decide the annual fishing quotas. Without reliable data, fishing quotas cannot be regarded as sustainable in the long term.

Shipping Pollution - a new film about the impact of maritime transportation in the Baltic Sea

Premiers in Almedalen on 30th June.

The environmental impact of shipping in the Baltic Sea is not widely known. How have decades of unclean air emissions affected the people and the sea? Why are passengers on cruise ships allowed to defecate into the Baltic Sea? How can that be tolerated and who can put a stop to it? Following acclaimed and award-winning films about fishing, eutrophication and chemicals, Folke Rydén is now releasing his fourth film about the Baltic Sea.

100 million SEK at Skansen for the future of the Baltic Sea

Skansen and BalticSea2020 are starting a collaboration to save the Baltic and make it a much healthier sea. This is an investment of 100 million SEK with the aim of creating an educational centre for both school classes and everyone else visiting Skansen. Visitors will be able to experience the condition of the Baltic Sea beneath its surface in newly created aquariums and will have the opportunity to discover previously unknown aspects of the Baltic in displays and laboratories. Our ambition is to increase people’s awareness of how the 90 million people who live in the Baltic Sea region can improve the conditions for a cleaner inland sea.

The Second Wave best story

The Second Wave has been awarded The Best Story in the 13th NaturVision Film Festival in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Producer of the film, Folke Rydén, attended to receive the price.

New research: Selective fishing cause smaller cods

The size of the cod in the Baltic Sea has declined dramatically over the past 20 years, writes Dagens Nyheter (daily newspaper) according to new Swedish research published yesterday. Henrik Svedäng, associate professor at the Marine Research Laboratory in Lysekil, says to Dagens Nyheter that the fish certainly are many, but that they indicate deteriorating growth.

Joakim Odelberg and Peter Juhlin recevied South Coast Water Association water conservation prize

BalticSea2020 wants to congratulate Joakim Odelberg and Peter Juhlin for receiving the South Coast Water Association water conservation prize. The prize is awarded each year to reward commendable efforts and increased awareness which contributes to a sustainable marine environment along the south coast of Sweden. Odelberg and his team received the prize for their work against ghost nets in the Baltic Sea.

Professor Daniel Conley awarded the Ruth Patrick Award

BalticSea2020 wants to congratulate Professor Daniel Conley who has been awarded a prestigious prize from an international organization - ASLO (Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography) called the Ruth Patrick Award. Daniel Conley received the award due to his efforts to understand hypoxia and to examine ways to address the problem.

Nature conservation Award 2014 to Peter Feuerbach and John Strand

BalticSea2020 wants to congratulate Peter Feuerbach and Johan Strand from the Swedish Rural Economy and Agricultural Societies in Halland, who has received an award from The Swedish Species Information Centre, at the Flora and Fauna conference 2014 in Uppsala.

Fishing for stickleback can reverse the negative trend in the Baltic Sea

Stickleback populations has increased sharply in the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is also a species that currently has no commercial value. With support from the BalticSea2020 foundation, researchers at Umeå University are considering the possibility of commercially fishing stickleback to provide fish feed.

The project Microbial populations in the Baltic Sea in International Innovation

In the journal International Innovation Professor Birgitta Bergman talks about the research project Microbial populations in the Baltic Sea, a project in co-operation with Dr Craig Venter. The project aims to examine the microorganisms in the Baltic Sea and how they are affected by external changes and how they in turn affect life in and around the sea.

Article: Increased regulations and higher profitability for fishermen

On account of the implementation of the new Common Fishery Policy, Jan-Olof Larsson (responsible for fisheries policy of the Social Democrats in Sweden) and BalticSea2020 have written an article focusing on the introduction of the so-called discard ban (that all fish caught must be landed and counted against the quota) in Sweden.

Documentary on ghost nets in the World of science (SVT2)

On February 10, you can see Joakim Odelbergs and Leofilms documentary on ghost nets. The documentary airs at 20:00 in the World of Science (SVT2). Ghost nets are discarded fishing gear that continues to catch fish for decades, affecting the size of the fish population, causing suffering to wildlife and unforgivable destruction of our common natural resources.

The Baltic cod regain MSC certification

The Swedish cod fishery in the eastern Baltic, fished with ground lines, is once again MSC certified. After three months with withdrawn certificate, they got back the proof that they are operating sustainably. What was missing earlier was an explanation if there were birds in the by-catch - which they now have adjust.

Polish cod fishers break new ground with MSC

The Eastern Baltic cod fishery has become the first fishery from Poland to enter into assessment against the MSC standard for well-managed and sustainable fisheries. It will be assessed against the 31 indicators of the MSC standard covering stock abundance, the impacts of the fishery on the marine ecosystem, and the management of the fishery. The assessment will be conducted by a team of independent scientists under the lead of a third-party certifier. If successful, the fishery will be eligible to show the blue MSC ecolabel on its cod catch from the Eastern Baltic Sea. The MSC logo is the world’s best known mark for sustainably caught fish, with consumer recognition in major European markets of 23 to 55 per cent.

20 km fishing gears were picked up outside Smygehuk in Sweden

Between September 8 and 12 2013 Trelleborg Municipality picked up 20 km fishing gears from the water east and west of Smygehuk in south of Swden. The work is part of the project "Ghost nets outside Smygehamn" initiated by Sten Björk, vice president of Trelleborg Municipality's Development Coorporation, and funded by BalticSea2020 and of The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management.

Fish for the Future on the new Common Fisheries Policy

BalticSea2020 has met three parliamentarians from Fish for the Future, who talks about their views on the new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Meet the MEPs Isabella Lövin, Christofer Fjellner and Chris Davies, who before the voting on February 6, 2013 have worked hard to ensure that the Parliament will support a fisheries legislation that value profitable and sustainable fisheries. Read the entire article here.

Charles Clover on the EU's fisheries subsidies and its negative impact on fisheries

Ahead of the European Parliament voting on the fisheries subsidies next week, we want you to observe the article "Dead ahead, a plague of zombie trawlers sucking life from the sea", by Charles Clover, The Sunday Times.