The long-term monitoring of the state of the Baltic Sea produces reliable information to support decision-making related to the sea. The Baltic Sea monitoring programme follows the development of the state of the Baltic Sea and variations in the factors that have an impact on it.
Photo: The Finnish Border Guard
The monitoring programme will help monitor, for example, physical and chemical conditions, eutrophication, the state of the sea floor, the prevalence of birds, mammals and fish, the concentrations of hazardous substances, littering and noise. Separate monitoring will also be carried out to track the nutrient load, use of natural resources (such as fishing) and, for example, the load of hazardous substances.
The Finlands monitoring programme compiles information from several different research institutions (the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), the Natural Resouces Institute Finland (Luke), The Finnish National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health, the Finnish Food Authority, the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), and other parties, such as regional environmental authorities, the Finnish Border Guard, the Finnish Museum of Natural History, Metsähallitus and non-profit organisations. The work is coordinated by the SYKE Marine Research Centre.
Some of the observation points of the monitoring programme are also involved in long-term monitoring, which has produced long time series on the development of water temperature, salinity, oxygen content, nutrients, turbidity, hazardous substances, and plankton and benthic fauna.
Observations from the entire Baltic Sea area are compiled by the SYKE research vessel Aranda in cooperation with the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), among other parties. Automatic monitoring equipment installed on trade vessels (Alg@line) also helps to monitor the surface temperature and salinity of waters and algae concentrations in real-time. On the Finnish coast, Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centres) also gather information about the state of coastal waters. The status assessments also utilise information produced through satellite imaging.
The Finnish Baltic Sea monitoring programme is coordinated with other countries bordering the Baltic Sea as part of HELCOM cooperation.
The monitoring of the Baltic Sea is a part of the EU’s joint marine management
The Baltic Sea monitoring programme is a part of the implementation of the EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) in Finland.
The MSFD includes three parts: I) Good Environmental Status (GES), II) monitoring programme, and III) management action plan. Each of the parts are revised every six years.
The Marine Directive aims to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) for the EU's marine waters. The results of these assessments are used as the basis of a marine management action plan, which includes proposals for improving the state of the Baltic Sea.
The marine management monitoring programme measures the realisation of environmental goals set and the attainment of good status for the Baltic Sea. The Finnish first monitoring programme was completed 2014 and revised 2020.