InfoBaltic
Informationscentralen för egentliga Östersjön, Stockholm, Sverige
The Information Office for the Baltic Sea, Stockholm, Sweden
The Information Centre for the Baltic Proper (Infobaltic, IB) is a part of the County Administrative Board (CAB) of Stockholm, which is a Swedish national authority. There are 21 CABs in Sweden. The CAB is a link between people and the municipalities on the one hand, and between the government, parliament and national authorities on the other. It is a coordinating national authority with supervisory responsibilities and also a public service authority. Sweden has three Information Centres, hosted at three different CABs, whose primary purpose is to monitor large-scale events in the marine environment. This may involve, for example algal blooms, oxygen depletion, or cases of larger numbers of dead birds, fish or seals. IB monitors the area from the Åland Sea to the Sound (except the Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Riga). IB receives information from a large number of sampling points included in national and international monitoring programs and they cooperate with more than twenty agencies, research institutions and other organisations/companies that are active in monitoring the Baltic Sea environment, both within and outside Sweden. Annual reports are published and information on on-going events is distributed to the public. IB receives 100-150 requests for information, mainly focused on algal blooms, every year. A majority of the requests comes for media and single statements have shown to have a large spread in local/regional media.
IB was founded in 1992 and 2-3 people are involved in the work, mainly during the summer season. The information central is funded by SwAM and presently includes the marine environment of the enclosed brackish Baltic Proper. There is a potential and desire to improve the existing service provided by IB and to extend it to also include inland waters.
Infobaltic activities in the H2020 CyanoAlert project
Infobaltic – The County Administrative Board of Stockholm will use in situ data to validate the data provided from the satellite through our regular national and regional environmental monitoring programmes. We will, when possible, integrate the information in Infobaltics information service and assist in the usability assessment of the service platform.
Infobaltic and its responsibilities in the Baltic Proper region
Infobaltic is one of three information centers in Sweden, whose main purpose are to monitor large scale events in the marine environment and to interpret and communicate such occurrences to the public and media. Infobaltic monitor the Baltic Sea area from Åland Sea in the north to Öresund in the south –referred to as the Baltic Proper. The information service is mainly focusing on algal blooms even though information also may include occurrences of large scale fish kills etc. Infobaltic is situated at The County Administrative Board of Stockholm and is financed by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water management.
Infobaltic study area
The Baltic sea and many of the lakes in the region are affected by anthropogenic eutrophication and cyanobacteria blooms occur annually. The blooms affect the possibility to enjoy recreational water activities and may have some adverse health effects on livestock and pets.
Infobaltic use of information provided from the service
We expect that the information will enhance and supplement Infobaltics service concerning issuing warnings of cyanobacteria blooms. We hope that the information that the service provides will supplement our routine in situ environmental monitoring and be useful when determining status according to the Water Framework Directive.
Infobaltic study area benefit from the information provided by the service
We hope that the information service will fill information gaps in current monitoring programmes for cyanobacteria and eutrophication. We also hope the information service will improve our understanding and knowledge of cyanobacteria and algal blooms in the region.
