ABSTRACT

This paper examines the state of the Baltic sea’s health, it mainly focuses on the causes of the deteriorating health but also touches on subjects such as how agencies, organisations and the population are working towards saving the Baltic sea. The paper also discusses how the health of the ocean shows itself to the people.

The method used to examine these points were interviews with people living around the ocean and people who work at agencies that work with preserving the sea. The Havs- och vattenmyndigheten was visited and a person working there was interviewed. Two people living on the coast in Stockholm were also interviewed.

The research showed that the main causes of the oceans deteriorating health was overfertilization, overfishing and algal bloom. The results also showed that agencies rely heavily on organisations since they buy research from them. Agencies mostly work through different projects involving different parts of society such as farmers in order to help the ocean recover. People living near the ocean don’t necessarily act in order to help but will if it becomes more reliable for them. People living near the ocean said that the biggest signs of the worsened health of the Baltic sea shows itself mostly in aspects such as the amount of marine-life and the increasing amount of algal bloom. The results don’t differ much from previous research, except for in parts such as how Havs- och vattenmyndigheten work with other agencies or organisations which became clear in the result but wasn’t very clearly laid out in the previous research shown in the background of this paper.

In conclusion this paper showed what has to be done in order to save the Baltic sea and what is already being done, aswell as the visible consequences of the worsening health of the sea.