Blekinge archipelago stretches among almost the entire coastline of Blekinge, from west to east. It covers some 210,000 hectares (520,000 acres) including water; the landmass amounts to about 54,000 hectares (130,000 acres). The archipelago is dominated by a few large islands, Tjärö, Aspö, Hasslö, Tärnö and Sturkö, with smaller islands and skerries interspersed. In the whole archipelago area, some 85,000 people live, of whom 4,000 are islanders.[2] The island of Utlängan is the farthest out to sea of the archipelago's islands; only the lighthouse rock Utklippan is farther out.
Shipbuilding has been a traditional local trade within the archipelago and the area is known for a traditional type of small boat, called blekingeeka and used for tasks like fishing and transporting stone locally.[3]
In the 1970s, the local diving club discovered a shipwreck in the Blekinge archipelago that was eventually identified by archaeologists as Gribshunden, a 15th-century Danishwarship.[4][5] The shipwreck is significant as one of the best-preserved wreckages from the early modern period.[4][6]
^Einarsson, Av Lars. "Ett skeppsvrak i Ronneby skärgård" [A shipwreck in the archipelago of Ronneby] (PDF) (in Swedish). Kalmar Läns Museum (Kalmar County Museum). Retrieved 2015-08-13.