Coasts and sea

Sweden is more than half surrounded by sea. From the salt sea in the west to the almost fresh waters of the Gulf of Bothnia in the northeast, the Swedish coast winds for 1,700 km. If you take the more important capes and bays into account, Sweden may be considered to have a coastline some 7,000 km long.

This coast can offer almost everything, from wild and inaccessible cliffs to soft, shallow, welcoming sandy beaches. The most majestic part of the coastline is the Skagerrak archipelago north of Gothenburg, which contrasts abruptly steep cliffs with a few deep and extensive fjords. The deepest waters are the Kosterrannan 247 m, between the mainland and the Koster Islands, and further south Gullmarsfjorden, 142 m. South of Gothenburg, shallow beaches stretch for miles. Between Varberg and Halmstad the visitor will find a string of renowned resorts, like pearls in a necklace.

Most typical of all Swedish coastal landscapes is the archipelago with its jumble of large and small islands and skerries. In Stockholm's archipelago alone there are some 25,000 small islands.

The attractive leafiness of the inner archipelago with its oak groves, its meadows and its reeds, is in dramatic contrast to the barren severity of the outer archipelago with its bare rocks and the occasional windbattered juniper bush or crow-berry patch cowering in the crevices. The outer archipelago hosts many species that are otherwise only found in the harsh climate of the mountain regions.

Unique, and quite different from the general run of Swedish landscapes, are the two big islands of Gotland and Oland in the southern Baltic. With their chalky rock, they have a flora unique for our latitudes, with many different species of orchids. Here, too, grasshoppers and butterflies may be found that really have their home in the Far East. Completely unique is the Oland rockrose, which can only be found on the bare limestone soil of the Oland alvar. The coastal cliffs, and the fantastic shapes of the Gotland rauk stacks, carved out of the rock by wind and waves, are particularly characteristic features.

The greater part of Sweden's population lives in coastal settlements. In some archipelago communities fishing is still an important source of income. The most important species fished in the North Sea are cod, herring, shrimps and Norwegian lobster, while the Baltic is fished for salmon, Baltic herring and herring. But Swedish seas, too, have been hard hit by overfishing, and salmon, cod and Norwegian lobster have been fished almost to extinction.