Service description

Marinefinland.fi is an online service maintained by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE).

Marinefinland.fi is Finnish marine data and information portal, providing information about the Baltic Sea and bringing together the maritime materials and services of the key institutions of administrative branches producing marine data in Finland. The service’s development has relied on data and materials concerning the Baltic Sea gathered over decades. These have then been made freely available to the public. Marinefinland.fi ensures the findability and availability of Finnish marine data and maritime materials.

Marinefinland.fi has been produced as a project supported by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund in 2017–2020. The partners producing the marine data include the Finnish Environment Institute, the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Metsähallitus, the Finnish Heritage Agency, the Brahea Centre at the University of Turku, the Coordination Group for Marine Spatial Planning Cooperation and the Government of Åland.

Service content and separate services

Marinefinland.fi is composed of sections focused on different maritime aspects such as the Baltic Sea nature, human impact, research, and recreational activities. The Baltic sea now provides real-time data on conditions at sea and maritime news. The image bank offers hundreds of photos of the Baltic Sea – both above and below the surface – for non-commercial use, accounting for rights of use.

The data services of Marinefinland.fi gather together the services of Finnish institutions that produce marine data and provide downloading services for the use of open-access maritime materials. The search and download services of marine data provide experts, students and researchers access to maritime geographical information and research materials produced in Finland with a one-stop principle. The Merihavainnot.fi service allows you to search for and download observational data and time series related to the status and conditions of the sea. The Meriaineistot.fi service allows the downloading of open-access geographical information and research data produced at various institutions. The data can also be viewed on a map.

The ‘learn and study’ section provides information and teaching materials to support maritime environmental education. In this section pupils and students can get to know various themes related to the Baltic Sea. The teaching materials section brings together Baltic Sea-related materials suitable for teaching, produced by various parties. These can be downloaded for classes or for independent use.

The online service is published in Finnish, Swedish and English (under the addresses itämeri.fi , östersjön.fi and marinefinland.fi).

Seaguide.fi, optimised for mobile use and developed in connection with the service, is particularly useful for everyone at sea, also enabling the onshore use of marine data and materials. Seaguide.fi was published in 2019 in Finnish, Swedish and English.

Search

The website’s search field can be found at the top right-hand corner of the page. Searches cover the entire content of the website and the search results can be filtered according to content type. The search function also accepts partial words.

Browsers and terminal devices

The website is responsive, and the content is scalable according to the terminal device. The website’s appearance works best with the latest browser versions. The website can also be used with older browser versions, but some of its features may not work in older browsers.

File downloads and reader applications

PDF files require Adobe Reader software, which is downloadable for free.

The online service offers topical news in the form of RSS feeds.

Copyrights

Marinefinland.fi can be freely linked and its textual content can be used according to good practice. The image bank’s images can be used according to the rights indicated in relation to each image. Use of the website’s other image material is subject to a separate agreement with the Finnish Environment Institute; please send an email to hanna.piepponen@ymparisto.fi to do so. The source must be cited when using the materials of Marinefinland.fi.

Data protection and cookies

The Finnish Environment Institute is committed to protecting the privacy and personal data of its website visitors in accordance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Privacy policy (this would be a link to the Marinefinland.fi privacy statement)

Use and monitoring of cookies

The Marinefinland.fi site uses cookies. Some of the cookies relate to the website’s functionalities, others to the compilation of statistics related to the website’s use. Users can disable or block cookies by changing their browser settings. This may, however, result in the pages not displaying correctly.

Liability

The Finnish Environment Institute and the other parties responsible for the website’s implementation are responsible for the content of the online service, which they aim to keep as up-to-date as possible. Any errors are fixed without delay, to the extent possible.

The Finnish Environment Institute aims to provide error-free data without breaks in the service. Even so, users are always using the service and the data it contains at their own risk, and SYKE is not liable for any damage arising from the use of the service. This being the case, SYKE is not liable for any direct or indirect damage attributable to errors or defects in the service or the materials it contains, the use of the materials, third-party claims, operating breaks, changes in the content of the materials or a discontinuance of the service’s maintenance or for the service not working or being suitable for a particular purpose.