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”It was better before!”Håkan has spent a lot of time by the sea the last 25 years. He grew up on Brännö, an island outside Gothenburg and tells us about how when he was small he could see different bottom living creatures several metres down. Today the water has became so turbid, so nothing is seen at all. It was possible to see shoals of herring swimming around in the inner most parts of the archipelago. He even tells how you could see a large hole in the shoal when cod came swimming up through it whilst feeding on the herring. - When I was young you could see belts of barnacles along the cliffs, Håkan relates. Today they have dissappeared. Today, one feels that there is just ”muck” on the bottm, where sand was once present. When I was in the Koster archipelago you would sink half a metre into the muck on the bottom. The Koster archipelago has a terribly sludgy bottom. Besides, there is a coating of finely threaded alga everywhere, especially where the water is calm. Calm waters are usually found on the eastern side of the islands, because south-westerly winds dominate along the Swedish west coast. - As soon as come north of Hållö, outside Uddevalla, the water becames turbid, he continues. It is like driving into a wall. Earlier years, when one was out in the archipelago, it was like travelling around in an aquarium. You saw life everywhere. Today, it is like travelling around in a sewage plant. A great many people are of the opinion that farming has caused this over-fertilization with the leakage of nitrogen compounds into the sea. It is also believed that paper mills and certain other industries are "dirtying" the sea. Håkan ends our conversation by saying: - Despite what experts say, it has not became better.
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| A splendid outing ? | |||||
| Problems and expectations | |||||
| ”It was better before" | |||||
| Seawater and soluble salts | |||||
| The sea moves | |||||
| Coastal waters are close to us | |||||
| What is eutrofication? | |||||
| Sources of over-fertilization | |||||
| How the open masses of water are effected | |||||
| How shallow bays are effected | |||||
| What can we do? | |||||
| Alga harvest | |||||
