SAARI

Measuring the water quality in the Baltic Sea helps in monitoring the MPA’s effectiveness

SAARI is a joint project between Pro Litore ry and BSAG. It maps the water quality in the Gullkrona marine protected area. The area was protected in the October of 2022 as part of BSAG’s The Living Baltic Sea project. The goal of the protection is to safeguard the area’s biodiversity.

Species’ wellbeing is influenced by different conditions, such as the water’s salinity, turbidity and nutrient content. These vary both naturally and through indirect human pressures, such as nutrient loads from land. The measurements produced in SAARI project will help to form a general view of these conditions, which will be taken into consideration when assessing the effectiveness of protection.

In the archipelago both the environment type and water quality can have large local variations. Comprehensive mapping offers an important insight into the protected area’s underwater world, where the species live.

The project measures water quality from approximately 3000 measuring points during the spring, summer and fall of 2023 and 2024. Pro Litore ry will carry this out with the Coastrider method, which measures the water quality using an automatic, moving measuring system. This eliminates the need to take samples or otherwise disturb the area’s nature.