EU Baltic Sea Strategy

Proposals from Ålands Natur och Miljö

This paper contains the proposal of the environmental NGO Ålands Natur och Miljö (ÅNoM), acting in the autonomous province of Åland, concerning the Development of the EU Baltic Sea Strategy. Our point of view is the Northern Baltic archipelago region between the mainlands of Sweden and Finland, here named Northern Baltic and Archipelago Sea.

We in ÅNoM are fully aware of the critical, environmental situation in the Baltic Sea Region, especially concerning the effects of eutrophication and pollution with harmful chemicals and nuclear waste. We also look very seriously upon the influence of the increasing maritime traffic, especially the transportation of oil at open sea and the heavy traffic of passenger- and car ferries along the routes through the Archipelago Sea.

The Archipelago Sea Region around the Åland Islands is a vast region of a mostly very shallow and narrow network of waterways in between thousands of small islands, covering more than 3000 square km, and with an entire length of shoreline reaching over 10 000 km. This archipelago acts as a filter gathering pollutions from open sea as well as from surrounding mainlands. Some 50% of the nitrogenous load is carried by air, dominantly from the SW. Significant parts of the water body is eutrophicated and the bottoms periodically suffer from lack of oxygen.

The main origin of the pollutants are not always easy to point out. Are they emissions from local agriculture or fish farming, or perhaps from urban regions and river outlets? How much originates from long distance transport by air and water? It is quite obvious that the burning of coal in Eastern and Central Europe together with heavy road traffic have a considerable impact on the Baltic Sea Region. So have the massive outlets of wastewater along the Channel- and North Sea coasts since the only inlet of salty water to the Baltic is the Skagerrak.

What should be done in our opinion to achieve a recovery of the Baltic Sea?

Eutrophication.

- No sewerage outlets from land or from sea traffic, including pleasure boating, should be allowed. Also inland urban regions in Baltic countries, Russia, Poland, Germany etc. should participate.

- All combustion engine vehicles, even seagoing, should be equipped with catalysators.

- All agricultural systems inside the Baltic catchment area must be strongly encouraged and promoted to change into sustainable organic farming.

- Methane producing (bio-gas) systems should be promoted in connection with all industrial animal farming. Combined vegetable- animal- farming should be encouraged.

- All fish farming in seawater must have obligatory waste water treatment, for example mussel farming.

- Forestry methods, which include excessive soil tilling, should be modified into more environment friendly methods.

- A system where you can sell and by,same as with the Co2 but regarding N and P, should be developed for the Baltic sea region.

Traffic on land.

- Road traffic has expanded beyond all limits in Europe. A much greater part of it must be transferred to railroads and transportation by sea, for instance by tax regulations.

- The road traffic should to a greater extent be based on renewable fuels e.g. bio-gas.

Sea-going traffic.

- The ship generated waste problems must be dealt with seriously. Every port visited by ships or pleasure crafts must provide disposal facilities for sewage.

- oil spill at sea, whether deliberate or accidental, must be supervised and followed by heavy penalties.

- Ships loaded with environmentally hazardous cargo should be obliged to engage adequate staff in charge, or pilot in the whole Baltic area.

- Big ships, e.g. passenger and car ferries exceeding 15 000 TDW should follow speed regulations when passing through the curved and narrow fairways in the Archipelago Sea. Up to this date they use the same rules as in open sea keeping up speeds between 18 - 21 knots. This has led to detrimental consequences for the shorelines (i.e. heavy erosion), water life and daily life of the inhabitants along the ship route, by generating heavy turbulence 10 - 16 times every 24 hours. Other consequences are excessive fuel consumption and exhaust emissions as well as putting smaller vessels into jeopardy.

Fishery practises.

- The intensity of fishing in the Baltic must follow the recommendations of ICES. All bottom trawling should be abandoned. Sustainable small scale fishing should be favoured. Protected breeding areas for fish should be established.

Hazardous substances.

- Burning of waste producing dioxins should be abandoned if not carried out completely safely.

- Final deposition of nuclear waste must be arranged in safe bedrock with a minimum distance of 100 km from the shoreline, preferably placed into controllable stores.