SLU Aqua's history

The activities at SLU Aqua have over the years developed into a vital research environment with unique opportunities to produce knowledge that is directly applicable in practice - for both marine and limnic environments. For 150 years, we have generated knowledge and collected data that we can use in modern models and analyses.

History of SLU Aqua

The Department of Aquatic Resources (SLU Aqua) was established on 1 July 2011, as part of the Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The activities have developed from a focus on Swedish food security to today's focus on the sustainable use of aquatic natural resources and the protection of aquatic environments. Today, SLU Aqua is divided in three divisions: the Institute of Marine Research, the Institute of Coastal Research and the Institute of Freshwater Research. We are stationed in six locations in Sweden.

SLU Aqua's history begins in the mid-19th century when the first fisheries science investigations in inland and coastal waters were carried out. During the famine years of the 1860s, national efforts were made to secure food supplies, and several fish farms were established. One of the first fish hatcheries was built next to the royal salmon fishery in Älvkarleby in 1871, and this is where SLU Aqua's Fisheries Research Station is still located today.

International cooperation an old tradition

At the end of the 19th century, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences proposed that Sweden should participate in international surveys of our oceans and begin research on fish species with economic value. The commission Svenska Hydrografisk-Biologiska Kommissionen led the work, and this was the starting point for the formation of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in 1902. In current working groups within ICES, SLU Aqua still contributes our research and advice.

Research institutes at Lysekil and Drottningholm

With the help of funds from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Statens Havsfiskelaboratorium (the Institute of Marine Research) was inaugurated in Lysekil in 1929 and the Statens undersöknings- och försöksanstalt för sötvattensfisket (the Institute of Freshwater Research) at Drottningholm in 1932. Both laboratories were incorporated into the Swedish Board of Fisheries in Gothenburg in July 1948.

Öregrund och "Kustundersökningen"

In the 1960s, surveys of fish along Sweden's coasts begun in connection with various water law cases, including the case of the construction of the nuclear power plant in Forsmark. These surveys were called the Kustundersökningen and were run by the Swedish Water Inspection (later the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency). The Kustundersökningen was placed in Öregrund in 1974 and thus came closer to the activities at the Biotest facility next to the Forsmark nuclear power plant and the the Fisheries Research Station in Älvkarleby. Today, it is SLU Aqua's division in Öregrund and Uppsala - the Institute of Coastal Research - that conducts the surveys of fish stocks in the nuclear power plant's hot water discharge, and that runs the experimental station in Älvkarleby.

The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and SLU Aqua

The Swedish Board of Fisheries was dissolved on 30 June 2011 and its operations were divided between several agencies. Today, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management regulates fishing, the Swedish Board of Agriculture supports the fishing industry, and the Department of Aquatic Sciences (SLU Aqua) at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences conducts research on fish, fisheries and aquatic ecosystems.