Sweden’s first marine national park

King Karl Gustav led the opening ceremony in which speeches and singing celebrated the new park. The formation of Sweden's first marine national park comes 100 years after the country's first national park was established on land, as continued efforts are made to care for special environments.

The marine national park creates a fine balance between protecting the ecosystem, maintaining the area's appeal to visitors and safeguarding its fishing industry.

Kosterhavets is centred around the Koster Islands, two hours north of Gothenburg, and of the 450 sq km it covers, 390 are underneath the water’s surface. The Koster-Väderö Fjord is located within the park with 200 different species of animals and plants that can’t be found anywhere else in the country, including reefs of deep-water coral Lophelia Pertusa. The fjord’s seabed is a unique environment with both hard and soft seabeds at a depth of over 200 meters, along with shell sand bottoms, and shallow seabeds out towards Skagerrak. The Koster-Väderö Fjord is also connected to the Norwegian Trench, in turn connected to the Atlantic Ocean, with conditions in the trench that are almost oceanic. This means creatures that would normally be found on the continental slopes thrive here. The fjord is also an important breeding and nursery ground for fish and shellfish.

Read more about Kosterhavet Marine National Park »

Read more about Strömstad & Koster  »