Researchers, environmental analysts and communicators collaborate to increase knowledge about the sea support marine management of various environmental challenges.
New research shows it difficult to capture nutrients once they have entered the waterways, and measures need maintenance to avoid becoming counterproductive.
Improved wastewater treatment has led to better water quality and a new study shows that bladderwrack has now returned to inner parts of the Stockholm archipelago
Fishing for endangered eels continues despite warnings
Despite ICES recommendation of “zero catches in all habitats”, the EU council of Ministers decides that eel fisheries will be allowed to continue 2025.
The primary objective of an Ocean Pact should be to restore and maintain ocean good environmental status; the short term goal should be improvement, while avoiding damage.
"Zero catches in all habitats" – ICES' advice on European eel remains unchanged from previous years. However, the new Swedish management plan presented this autumn still allows for commercial fishing for soon-ready-to-spawn eels.
"The decision not to extend the most effective measure from the west coast to the Baltic Sea is based on an eel stock estimate for the Baltic Sea that is more akin to wishful thinking. The government had commissioned a review of this by the research council Formas, who downplayed and glossed over it in their report," comments policy analyst Charles Berkow.
EU fisheries ministers decided on higher catch quotas (TACs) than the Commission had proposed in the Baltic Sea next year. The TAC for Gulf of Bothnia herring was reduced, but not enough to comply with EU regulations. ‘It is remarkable that the Council is not complying with its own legislation,’ says Sara Söderström, fisheries researcher at the Baltic Sea Centre.
Sweden should increase nitrogen fertilisation of its forests — even in the southern parts of the country — according to the government’s forest policy inquiry. However, increased fertilisations is a also expected to lead to higher inputs of nitrogen to the Baltic Sea – inputs that Sweden has committed to reducing under the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan, the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and the Water Framework Directive. “If leaching from forests is allowed to increase, nitrogen loads from other sectors must be reduced even more,” says researcher Bärbel Müller-Karulis.
Linus Magnusson from ECMWF, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, is appointed Adjunct Professor at MISU on 10 percent, from 1 September. He will e.g. supervise Master degree projects, do Arctic research related to forecast evaluation and model/observation improvements, support planning and forecasting during Arctic campaigns, and some preparation of course material.
How big a risk is it reasonable to take – with our fish stocks, our marine environment, our food security?
How seriously do fisheries ministers take their targets?
How seriously do the ministers take their own rules?