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Kosterhavet National Park ( sv, Kosterhavets nationalpark, literally ''The Koster Sea National Park'') is the first
national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...
marine park in Sweden, inaugurated in September 2009. It is part of the
Skagerrak The Skagerrak (, , ) is a strait running between the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the southeast coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area through the Danish Straits to the Baltic Sea. The ...
sea and is located in
Strömstad Strömstad is a locality and the seat of Strömstad Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 6,288 inhabitants in 2010. For historical reasons, Strömstad is called a ''city'' despite its small population. Strömstad became part of Sw ...
and Tanum municipalities in
Bohuslän Bohuslän (; da, Bohuslen; no, Båhuslen) is a Swedish province in Götaland, on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea ...
,
Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County ( sv, Västra Götalands län) is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1 ...
,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. It consists of the sea and shores around the
Koster Islands The Koster Islands (Swedish: ''Kosteröarna'') situated 10 km west of Strömstad, Sweden, comprises an archipelago surrounding the two largest islands, South Koster and North Koster. South Koster has an area of 8 km2 and North Koster an a ...
, excluding everything else on the islands. In the north, it borders the
Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...
marine park of Ytre Hvaler. Kosterhavet National Park is home to Sweden's largest seal colony.


Nature

The environment in the park is unique to Swedish waters. Over 6,000 marine species have been identified, about 200 of them can not to be found elsewhere in Sweden. The Kosterfjord ( en, Koster Fjord) is deep with relatively low temperature – – and high
salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...
(about 35%).
Brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, w ...
,
sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...
and
coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...
larvae are brought in by currents from the Atlantic. Rare seabirds, such as
Arctic tern The Arctic tern (''Sterna paradisaea'') is a tern in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe (as far south as Brittany), Asia, and North America (as far south a ...
s and
skua The skuas are a group of predatory seabirds with seven species forming the genus ''Stercorarius'', the only genus in the family Stercorariidae. The three smaller skuas, the long-tailed skua, the Arctic skua, and the pomarine skua are called jae ...
s, along with a large population of
harbor seal The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared sea ...
s have their habitat here.
Plaice Plaice is a common name for a group of flatfish that comprises four species: the European, American, Alaskan and scale-eye plaice. Commercially, the most important plaice is the European. The principal commercial flatfish in Europe, it is al ...
,
cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...
and
sea trout Sea trout is the common name usually applied to anadromous (sea-run) forms of brown trout (''Salmo trutta''), and is often referred to as ''Salmo trutta'' morpha ''trutta''. Other names for anadromous brown trout are sewin (Wales), peel or peal ...
breed in the more shallow waters closer to the shore. Professional fishing is allowed although special regulations apply. The waters of the park is significant for the fishing of '' northern prawn'' and Norwegian lobster. Fishing is not subject to environmental protection, and are instead regulated by fishery laws and an agreement from 2000.


Gallery

File:Kosterhavet National Park logo.svg, Kosterhavet's logo File:Kosterhavet-Ursholmen 01.jpg, Kosterhavet National Park File:Kosterhavet-Ursholmen-lighthouse.jpg, Kosterhavet National Park, lighthouse at Ursholmen island File:Kosterhavet Ursholmen.jpg, Kosterhavet National Park, Ursholmen island File:Kosterhavet national park.jpg, Kosterhavet National Park, sea File:Kosterhavet Tjarno.jpg, Tjärnö village File:Růžová sasanka.jpg, Anemone in the sea aquarium in Tjärnö


References


External links

*
Kosterhavets webbplats

Sweden's National Parks: Kosterhavet National Park
from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency Protected areas established in 2009 2009 in Sweden Bohuslän National parks of Sweden Geography of Västra Götaland County Marine parks of Sweden Tourist attractions in Västra Götaland County {{Protected-area-stub