The Seabased Project
The most large-scale problem of the Baltic Sea is eutrophication. While we have been successful in cutting the nutrient load from land, nutrients that are stored in the seabed slow down the Sea’s recovery. The SEABASED Project (Seabased Measures in Baltic Sea Nutrient Management) assesses measures that improve the status of marine area by reducing the internal load of the sea. The project pilots selected measures in the pilot areas in Finland, Åland and Sweden.
Pilots
SEABASED pilots are small-scale local activities, testing methods to alleviate the internal nutrient load in the Baltic Sea with low risks of causing any negative effects to the ecosystem. Piloted measures, that could help reduce the effects of excess nutrient load in the Baltic Sea include e.g. removing the active, oxygen-consuming surface layer of bottom sediment; recycling the nutrient-rich water from the proximity of the seabed for use in farming; and retaining phosphorus in the seabed sediment using natural, limestone-based materials, e.g. marl. Most of SEABASED pilot activities will be implemented during 2019-2020.
Go to pilotsAquatic compensation
Alongside the pilot activities, SEABASED has a mission to develop a concept of aquatic compensation in coastal waters with focus on nutrient offsetting. The objective is to examine different options and needs for new regulations for legislation and to find functional and sustainable solutions, e.g., to be utilized in ecosystem-based compensations in the future, for which Åland will act as “a test laboratory”. The concept will be applied and tested in practice with pilot activities to reduce nutrients from the marine environment and to restore the coastal pilot areas into better conditions. A model for a Water Improvement Fund will also be described with the effort of taking aquatic compensation from theory into practice.
Facts & Materials
Find answers to your questions about the SEABASED Project and check out the Baltic Sea terminology.
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News & Blog
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October 8, 2020Finding the right methods of fishing sticklebackFinding a suitable and successful method to catch a fish that has not been commercially fished for a century has been full of trials and errors. With relentless work and not giving up on the first hurdle, the SEABASED project has found a suitable method and fishing gear that should work with this tiny but ecologically significant fish. Rosita Broström from the Åland Fish Farmers’ Association writes more about the process of trying, failing and ultimately succeeding.
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September 17, 2020Stakeholders’ views on sea-based measures: Need for long-term studies and pilotsOne of the main objectives of the SEABASED project is to produce practical guidelines on sea-based measures. In addition to the results and experiences from project pilots, the guidelines will also be based on the views of scientists and stakeholders. Read more in the blog post written by Project Manager Eeva Puustjärvi.
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September 11, 2020The secret life of sticklebackWhen you ask people to name Baltic fish species, they usually list perch, pike, roach, cod, salmon and so on. Only a few can name stickleback. Many people around the Baltic Sea have never even heard about stickleback, although chances are that they have seen it in shallow nearshore waters, since it is one of the commonly sighted fishes. In this blog post we dive in to hear about the secret life of stickleback, with Ulf Bergström, the marine ecologist from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
