First stakeholder workshop in Szczecin Lagoon

On 21st October 2015 the first BONUS BaltCoast stakeholder workshop in the case study site Szczecin Lagoon took place in Ueckermünde. The workshop was organized by the Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research and EUCC – The Coastal Union Germany. About 30 participants from research, public authorities, municipalities, economy (mainly tourism and fishery) and ecology discussed about potentials for sustainable development and the role of the water body Szczecin Lagoon.
The first part of the workshop was on the regional development and future objectives to realize a more sustainable development, particularly in tourism as the most important branch of economic activity.
As the water quality can affect economic activities, such as fisheries and tourism, the second part of the workshop focused on the necessity of improving the water quality. Because of the high nutrient load of rivers, mainly Oder river, and the permanent resuspension of organic material from the sediment the water transparency of the lagoon is very low (<50 cm in summer). Zebra mussel farms as promising measure to improve water transparency were introduced to the participants and they discussed potentials, ways of implementation and results to be used for the sustainable development of the lagoon.