Maritime surveillance

The Coast Guard is responsible for monitoring maritime environments and providing civil maritime information to other authorities. Our maritime surveillance remit has intensified in recent years due to the deteriorating international situation. Among other things, this has meant that we have prioritised developing our intelligence operations and our ability to continuously produce up-to-date maritime situational pictures of what is happening in the maritime environment.

A man taking photographs with a camera from an aircraft.

Civil maritime situational picture

Our maritime situational pictures are at the centre of ongoing work to detect threats, cooperate with other authorities and act proactively. The concept of a maritime situational picture combines technology, analysis, reconnaissance and human experience. Above all, it relies on cooperation between different authorities and actors.

A man standing next to a car at the roadside.

Supervision and control

The Swedish Coast Guard maintains public order in maritime traffic. It also carries out supervision and control in areas such as fishing, customs, borders, maritime traffic and hunting.

Two people standing next to each other, looking at a piece of paper

Law enforcement and maintaining public order

The Swedish Coast Guard is responsible for maritime law enforcement and maintaining public order at sea. It either does this work independently or assists another authorities, in accordance with the Swedish Coast Guard Act (kustbevakningslagen, 2019:32) and other legislation. The Coast Guard also take part in joint cooperation between authorities against organised crime.