On 21 September, Region Skåne, a southern regional Swedish authority, gathered actors with a wide range of backgrounds to discuss sustainable entrepreneurship focusing on the Baltic Sea at a seminar called Blue Tech – a good idea for the Sea.
The meeting which was held at the Marine Center in Simrishamn gathered business entrepreneurs from multiple sectors such as tourism, algae product development, antifouling paint developers, blue mussel cultivation, representatives of municipal, regional and governmental authorities as well as scientists, consultants and stakeholder representatives.
The seminar stirred an interesting debate on various topics. Vesa Tschernij, of the SouthBalticFlag, a local action group of the Swedish south coast, demonstrated innovative fishing techniques, posing a low impact on the environment but at the same time requiring less effort compared with traditional fishing techniques. Vesa stressed the importance of fishermen becoming more involved with the marketing of products in order for coastal communities to become competitive with the larger scale offshore fishing industry.
Björn Risinger, the director general of the newly established Swedish Marine- and Water authority (HaV) was invited to give an introduction to the functioning of the new agency. HaV is taking an overall responsibility for the management of Swedish marine and freshwater areas, replacing the former Swedish board of fisheries and the functioning dealing with marine issues of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Björn stated the importance of marine spatial planning, enabling the accommodation of all users of the Baltic Sea, with the emphasis of environmental sustainability. According to Björn the major advantage of the new agency, compared to the previous management constellation, is that it will facilitate cross-sectoral management and therefore better ensure an ecosystem perspective in marine management.