Hundreds of thousands of people use the Oslo Fjord in the course of a year. Whether it is for swimming, or taking a fishing trip. But behind the idyllic fjord, there is a heavy backdrop.
At the bottom of the fjord there is everything from sewage residues to runoff from agriculture. Pollution, overfishing and bottom trawling have left deep scars in the Oslo Fjord.
Nine out of ten cod are gone. The mussels have almost completely disappeared. Birds die. The water in the fjord has now become so bad that the growth of several species is stopped.
– What we see now is a recipe for letting the Oslo Fjord go to hell, and we are very close to it being completed, says Rasmus Hansson in the Green Party.
He thinks it’s just a matter of time before the fjord is completely dead.
– The Oslo Fjord is the foremost example in Norway of a fjord that has been sacrificed, through 100 years of abuse to industry and business. Now this fjord must be protected, he states.
See the shocking pictures of the bottom of the Oslo Fjord
Believes protection is not enough
Minister of Climate and Environment Sveinung Rotevatn (V) believes that the municipalities around the Oslo Fjord should take responsibility for controlling emissions.
– It is their responsibility to ensure that they have control over water and sewage, and to ensure that the sewage does not flow straight into the sea.
Unlike Hansson, Rotevatn does not believe that protecting the fjord is necessarily the best solution.
– One can of course always consider new protection, but that in itself will not make the water quality better. There are the same requirements for water quality in a protected fjord, Rotevatn emphasizes.
– SKEPTIC: Minister of Climate and Environment Sveinung Rotevatn (V) does not think that protecting the Oslo Fjord will have too great an impact on water quality. Photo: Tom Rune Orset / TV 2
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– A tragedy
Senior researcher Even Moland at the Institute of Marine Research says that the situation today is so bad that the Oslo Fjord is about to lose its entire ecological function.
– If we end up with a situation where we are unable to catch up with the administrative backlog and lose the fjord’s ecological function, it will be a tragedy, he states.
– What does it take to save the fjord?
– It is asked what is meant by saving it, and what objectives the measures should have. If, for example, you want better water quality, you have to address runoff and discharges, he says before adding:
– But if you want to restore the function of the ecosystem, then the best available knowledge indicates that strict protection and good time is the best medicine.
