A Swedish company has been authorised to investigate the possibility of extracting mineral nodules from the seabed in the Gulf of Bothnia. They are said to be important for the green transition. Researchers will now provide answers to how the extraction would affect the organisms living at the bottom of the sea.
Can you feel anything but happiness, if you live on an island in the Baltic Sea and realize that a major chunk of the neighboring sea is about to become a national park? Many of us were both delighted and surprised in April 2020, when the Swedish government and our local municipality agreed that the outer Nämdö archipelago should become the first maritime national park on Sweden’s Baltic coast. Number two in the country, after Kosterhavet on the West Coast, inaugurated in 2007.
Several countries, including Sweden, have criticized Norway’s plans for deep-sea mining. However, a Swedish company has now been granted permission to explore the possibilities of extracting mineral nodules from the seabed off Skellefteå in the Gulf of Bothnia.
It sneaks out oil and fills Russia’s war coffers. It is suspected of spying on Sweden. And it is feared that at any time it could cause a huge environmental disaster. Russia’s so-called shadow fleet – with a thousand anonymous ships – has grown explosively and poses a threat in several ways in the Baltic Sea.
On Christmas Day 2004, our reporter and underwater film-maker Tobias Dahlin was with his family in Khao Lak, Thailand. This is his personal account of what happened then.
I write this as COP 16, the UN summit meeting on biodiversity, has just ended in the Colombian coastal city of Cali. On a human level there is progress: indigenous people are promised a stronger voice in the fight to protect threatened species on planet Earth. Many of these nations live near the oceans, some on islands that are also threatened with extinction because of climate change. Their voices will be important for the protection of those who inhabit the oceans.
I am now forbidden to fish for cod and the pike has disappeared from my bay. I’m looking for scapegoats. Who is responsible for the condition below the surface in the Baltic Sea? Small-scale professional fishermen along the east coast have been raising the alarm for several years that the herring has declined sharply. At the same time, the large-scale trawling in the open sea has continued to catch large quantities, which have gone directly to the fishmeal factories in Denmark.
Biomass and biodiversity. Two rather dull and stiff words. But words often associated with Raja Ampat. Raja Ampat is situated west of Papua Guinea, right in the heart of what’s known as the “Coral Triangle.”
Methane from the exploded Nord Stream pipeline has spread to large parts of the southern Baltic Sea. Over 20 marine protected areas are affected. This is shown by a new study. – How long the methane stayed in the sea and how far it was able to spread was quite striking to me, says Bastien Queste, associate professor in oceanography and co-author of the study.
When world-renowned ecologist and coral reef researcher Mark Erdman first arrived in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, in the early 2000s, both dynamite and shark fin fishing were still going on. He describes it as if all the major valuable fish species had been fished out. But today, when we meet him in Raja Ampat, we find a completely different reef, full of sharks and small fish.
Can you feel anything but happiness, if you live on an island in the Baltic Sea and realize that a major chunk of the neighboring sea is about to become a national park? Many of us were both delighted and surprised in April 2020, when the Swedish government and our local municipality agreed that the outer Nämdö archipelago should become the first maritime national park on Sweden’s Baltic coast. Number two in the country, after Kosterhavet on the West Coast, inaugurated in 2007.
Several countries, including Sweden, have criticized Norway’s plans for deep-sea mining. However, a Swedish company has now been granted permission to explore the possibilities of extracting mineral nodules from the seabed off Skellefteå in the Gulf of Bothnia.
