Anne Gunnäs - Lysekils kommun
Tuesday April 18th, 14.00-15.00
Interview by: Karl Hallström and Erik Junkers
Location of interview: Zoom
Background
Anne Gunnäs works as a maritime business developer in the section of sustainable development and quality at Lysekils kommun. The section is just below the municipal board and therefore, strategy and planning is made together with the municipal director. Gunnäs is also the coordinator of Lysekils kommun’s “blue economy”-goal. Gunnäs refers to the World Bank's explanation of the blue economy as “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem". Her section contains four companies with different connections to the maritime area. The municipal work also covers, for example water-based wind power.
Challenges with maritime environment
Gunnäs admits there are challenges facing the maritime environment in different ways but makes it clear that the state of the ocean differs a lot depending where you are in Sweden. Some parts are even getting better. Gunnäs further explains that, as a person who works with maritime business development, she thinks the biggest challenge for the marine environment in Sweden is the Swedish law. According to the interviewee, the blue economy is relatively new and we do not use all the resources in the ocean that we could use, in terms of food, waves, wind, material etc. The Swedish environmental code Miljöbalken, amongst other parts of the law in this area, does not allow the use of these resources in a modern society. Thus, society misses opportunities to provide resources for itself in new effective ways with little, none or positive environmental impact. Gunnäs says that the solution to this problem is to change Swedish law to open up the many possibilities that the blue economy allows. These can be new and effective ways to provide food and electricity for society in Sweden now but also in the future.
Data measuring
Lysekils kommun have done some maritime measuring and data collecting which have been the quality of swimming and bathing waters but also measurements for a project to see if it’s possible to make seawater drinkable. The research facility for marine environment Kristineberg, which is in Lysekils kommun has done a lot of measuring in the ocean. Gunnäs mentions the type of some of the data that has been collected, which is salinity, wind, waves, turbulence etc. She also mentions that SMHI, the Swedish meteorological and hydrological institute, has a large database with data from Lysekil and many other places. Lysekils kommun also measures sound in the ocean to understand how much noise ships are responsible for. When asked about legal factors in terms of data measuring, Gunnäs did not believe there are any specific obstacles.
Environmental conditions for new technologies
In the subject of the blue economy and new ways and technologies to use resources, such as cultivation and other, Gunnäs explains that the environmental conditions in the ocean matters to reach the best result of the use of these resources. This can be certain living conditions in cultivation of mussels or ascidians etc. She also describes that stakeholders are interested in different conditions and areas around the coast.
Citizen science
Gunnäs referred us to the aquarium Havets hus in Lysekil, when asked about citizen science, and explained briefly that they work with this area in different ways.