The first successful crossing was carried out by Lennart Flygare, Pavio Grzelewski and Tore Klingberg, who on 24 July, 2018, swam from Valassaaret (Valsörarna) on the Finnish side to Holmöarna in Sweden.

The archipelago is smaller on the Swedish side of the region, and the islands, part of Umeå Municipality, have much steeper shores.

[4] In 2006, parts of the Kvarken Archipelago were added as an extension to the World Heritage Site of the High Coast (located on the western shore of the Gulf of Bothnia) in Sweden, because of its outstanding demonstration of isostatic uplift, and the influence of glacial retreat on the evolution of landforms and topography.

In the group of islands in the “middle” of the Kvarken region, in Swedish called Valsörarna – Finnish Valassaaret, is a 36-metre-high (118 ft) lighthouse designed by Henry Lepaute [fr] who worked for Gustave Eiffel's engineering bureau.

The ferry route between Umeå and Vaasa connects Sweden and Finland at the narrowest part of the Gulf of Bothnia.

The official view from the Swedish and Finnish governments is that it is much too expensive, also put in regard that the cities are very small by European standards, as compared to Copenhagen and Malmö between the Oresund fixed link.