Water plague and its species friend narrow water plague are powerful invasive species that have entered coastal coves in the Gulf of Bothnia.
Here it threatens to kill other species, and smallpox is on the EU's list of invasive alien species.
This means that it is, among other things, forbidden to import, cultivate and release into the wild.
Hope to do the same in Sweden
It is believed that these species came in as aquarium plants or with good transports.
And now they are spreading below sea level and perhaps also in lakes.
Exterminating a species in a sea may seem like an impossible task, but Lena Bondestad from the County Administrative Board in Norrbotten hopes that the project will succeed and that Sweden will also be able to select areas where narrow water plague can be fought.
International cooperation
Sweden and Finland have a collaboration that they call SeaCOMOBO.
It is an EU-funded project where they work to increase knowledge, protect species, possibly create marine reserves and recreate certain habitats.
Lena Bondestad on a visit to Finland to learn about fighting plague.
Photo: Randi Gitz