Fisheries
Sustainable fisheries in the Baltic Sea are important to protect fish stocks and the future of the fisheries industry. There is a need for several different measures to end overfishing in the Baltic Sea. Read the latest research, comments and analyses about sustainable fisheries here.
News about fisheries
Read about our latest research and news on fisheries:
Policy briefs and fact sheets on fisheries
Read our policy briefs on fisheries
Baltic Eye's article archive on fisheries
Find Baltic Eye's article archive on fisheries here, with all articles written between 2018–2021. Newer articles are found in the Baltic Eye news feed, see above. Contact us if you are interested in older articles.
Articles from 2021
Commission fails to follow science's advice on eel fisheries
2021.12.08: The European Commission is not abiding ICES' call to stop all eel fishing next year. Instead, it proposes tightening up the system of closure periods for the fisheries. "The Commission is misinterpreting the scientific advice," says Baltic Sea Centre’s fisheries scientist Henrik Svedäng.
Commission fails to follow science's advice on eel fisheries
Increased trawl fishing on flatfish risks further damaging Baltic cod stocks
2021.11.17: The Baltic Sea countries in BALTFISH want to introduce new selective gear for flatfish fisheries to decrease cod by-catches. Only one of the trawl models can spare the large and ecologically important large cod – but according to BALTFISH it should only be mandatory in the southwest Baltic. Elsewhere, new gear may make things even worse for the cod.
Increased trawl fishing on flatfish risks further damaging Baltic cod stocks
Continued high fishing pressure on herring in the Gulf of Bothnia next year
2021.10.14: Herring catches in the central and western Baltic Sea will be halved next year, following the recent decision by EU’s farming and fisheries ministers. As compensation, sprat catches will increase. And in the Gulf of Bothnia, the sharp increase from earlier this year will be maintained also during 2022.
Continued high fishing pressure on herring in the Gulf of Bothnia next year
When Will They Ever Learn?
2021.09.13: The poor state of the Baltic Sea cod shows that the EU fisheries management system is dysfunctional. The destruction of the stocks could and should have been avoided, writes Charles Berkow, fisheries policy expert at Baltic Sea Centre.
Comment: Apply a buffer for uncertainty in fisheries
2021.08.24: The scientific advice on fisheries is more uncertain than many realize. Therefore, the EU needs a bigger buffer, and the Commission should propose much lower total allowable catches than they normally do.
Comment: Apply a buffer for uncertainty in fisheries
Baltic Breakfast: Seafood consumption from a sustainability perspective
2021.07.20: Is it sustainable to increase seafood consumption and how could consumers be encouraged to make sustainable choices? These issues were in focus during the last Baltic Breakfast webinar where researchers Sara Hornborg and Malin Jonell participated.
Baltic Breakfast: Seafood consumption from a sustainability perspective
Where have all the herring gone?
2021.07.01: It is very difficult to estimate how many fish there are in the sea. EU and Russian ministers need to realise that fisheries science is more uncertain than it looks, and use a precautionary buffer when setting TACs for the Baltic Sea, writes Charles Berkow, fisheries policy expert at the Baltic Sea Centre.
Where have all the herring gone?
Comment: Positive for biodiversity if EU Parliament votes for limiting bottom trawling
2021.06.04: In a new report from the ENVI Committee on the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 there is support for increased protection for marine protected areas and other sensitive marine habitats, such as coastal areas. Restriction of damaging human activities such as bottom trawling is proposed. In a few days the report is set to be voted on in plenary.
Comment: Positive for biodiversity if EU Parliament votes for limiting bottom trawling
ICES recommends increased herring catches – despite the lack of large herring
2021.06.03: ICES recommends a sharp increase in the catch quota for herring in the Gulf of Bothnia for the rest of this year and for 2022. "A major risk-taking", says Henrik Svedäng, researcher at Stockholm University’s Baltic Sea Centre.
ICES recommends increased herring catches – despite the lack of large herring
Bottom trawling threatens European marine ecosystems
2021.05.25: Fishing with bottom trawls has extensive effects on marine life and threatens seafloor integrity. It also impacts areas not directly trawled, since suspended sediment can travel far. Recent research on bottom trawling effects points to the need for establishing larger trawl-free areas in all types of habitats to protect sensitive ecosystems and live up to principles of ecosystem-based management.
Bottom trawling threatens European marine ecosystems
Does protecting the seas save the climate?
2021.04.01: Bottom trawling not only has consequences for fish and organisms living on the seabed, but can also affect the circulation of substances in the sea and, by extension, the climate. A large international study has estimated how much carbon that is stored on the bottoms and risks being released when they are trawled. But researchers at the Baltic Sea Centre mean that the calculations are uncertain.
Does protecting the seas save the climate?
Pan-European multi-model assessments can support EU policy decisions
2021.03.31: What effects will an improved nutrient management have on eutrophication, biodiversity and fisheries in the European seas? As an attempt to provide answers to such question, researchers from all over Europe have used a suit if biochemical and ecosystem models to simulate the response of nutrient reductions to indicators used in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
Pan-European multi-model assessments can support EU policy decisions
Comment: A Blue Year for the Baltic
2021.01.22: 2020 – was it only bad? The pandemic tended to overshadow everything else, but let us forget about the terrible corona virus for a minute and consider if 2020 brought any positive news for the Baltic Sea and what we can expect of 2021.
Articles from 2020
Comment: "Ambitious objectives but lack substantial tools"
2020.12.21: The EU Commission proposal for the 8th Environment Action Programme until 2030 has ambitious objectives but lack substantial tools.
Comment: "Ambitious objectives but lack substantial tools"
EU ministers treat the eel issue – will fishing continue next year?
2020.12.10: Next week’s meeting in the EU Agricultural and Fisheries Council offers an opportunity for the ministers to place restrictions on the fishing for European eel. Despite the repeated advice from scientists to ban eel fishing altogether, Baltic Sea Centre policy analyst Charles Berkow doubt that the Council will take such a decision.
EU ministers treat the eel issue – will fishing continue next year?
The great plankton change – good or bad for the Baltic Sea ecosystem?
2020.11.16: The phytoplankton community of the Baltic Sea is changing. A trend towards more cyanobacteria and fewer diatoms affects the entire marine ecosystem. The big question for the marine scientists is: How?
The great plankton change – good or bad for the Baltic Sea ecosystem?
Reduced fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea next year
2020.10.21: The closure of the eastern Baltic cod fishery will continue next year, following the Council's decision on Tuesday. In addition, both the western and the central Baltic herring fisheries will be greatly reduced.
Reduced fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea next year
Researchers: EU is heading in the wrong direction with fisheries subsidies
2020.10.14: Over the past 20 years, the EU has gradually got rid of fisheries subsidies that can harm fish stocks. In a new study from the University of British Columbia researchers warn that the positive trend now is about to be broken.
Researchers: EU is heading in the wrong direction with fisheries subsidies
Analysis: Baltic Sea fishing has not gone according to (multiannual) plan
2020.10.07: The decline in Baltic Sea cod and herring cannot be blamed solely on old sins. It must also be seen as a signal that something is not right in the administration, writes the Baltic Sea Center's Henrik Hamrén.
Analysis: Baltic Sea fishing has not gone according to (multiannual) plan
Comment: Baltic MAP evaluation lacks recommendations for improvement
2020.09.21: The European Commission's evaluation of Baltic MAP lacks assessments of how well the plan has met its objectives, according to Charles Berkow, Policy Officer at Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre.
Comment: Baltic MAP evaluation lacks recommendations for improvement
Commission Proposes Major Cuts in Herring Fisheries
2020.09.10: The European Commission proposes cuts for most commercial fisheries in the Baltic Sea next year. That confirms that the situation is dire for both fisheries and the marine environment, according to fisheries experts at the Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre.
Commission Proposes Major Cuts in Herring Fisheries
Comment: The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030
2020.05.20: The new EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 was presented today. The Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre welcomes the strategy and its increased level of ambition compared to the previous biodiversity strategy for 2020. It contains a number of concrete actions to step up the protection of marine ecosystems in the EU.
Comment: The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030
Comment: Reply to the roadmap for the Farm to Fork Strategy
2020.03.13: Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre welcomes the initiative and agrees that the transition to more sustainable food systems need to accelerate. Given an increasing population, increasing incomes and the resulting increases in environmental pressures, we need an accelerating eco-efficiency in our production and consumption of food. Eco-efficiency should be the overarching objective of the strategy.
Comment: Reply to the roadmap for the Farm to Fork Strategy
Researchers: Bottom trawling threatens seafloor integrity
2020.03.03: Bottom trawling has considerable effects on benthic life, but can also lead to a release of nutrients and hazardous chemicals from the sediments. These effects are important to consider when evaluating the effects of fishing on the Baltic Sea environment, say researchers at Stockholm University.
Articles from 2019
Climate change will increase the pressure on the Baltic Sea
2019.12.04: Climate is high on the agenda again. The UN COP25 Climate Change Conference in Madrid, just started. Recently the European parliament approved a resolution declaring a climate and environmental emergency in Europe and globally. Climate change will increase the pressure on the Baltic Sea. Now it is time to start filling the goals with action for our seas.
Climate change will increase the pressure on the Baltic Sea
MPAs – a tool to protect the entire ocean
2019.12.03: Politicians should talk less about how much of the sea is to be protected and more about a 100 percent sustainable use of the sea, says FAOs Fisheries Manager Manuel Barange. But according to researcher Sofia Wikström, marine protection is already a tool for achieving sustainable use of the entire sea - at least within the EU.
MPAs – a tool to protect the entire ocean
This is what the Baltic Sea can expect from the new Commission
2019.12.02: "The expectations on commissioner Sinkevičius are high".
This is what the Baltic Sea can expect from the new Commission
Analysis: Commission misreads science in justifying scrapping subsidies
2019.11.21: The European Commission’s proposal to reintroduce subsidies for scrapping fishing vessels in the Baltic Sea might benefit the eastern Baltic cod. But the way the Commission is selling the proposal is problematic. It’s narrow approach may unnecessarily slow the cod’s recovery, writes Charles Berkow, policy officer at Baltic Sea Centre.
Analysis: Commission misreads science in justifying scrapping subsidies
Comment: An important decision and a step forward
2019.10.15: Fisheries and agriculture ministers around the Baltic Sea may have made an important decision at the Council meeting this week.
Comment: An important decision and a step forward
Fact sheet: Understanding MSY
2019.10.08: MSY stands for Maximum Sustainable Yield, and can be understood as the largest annual harvest that a fishstock can produce in the long term. Although there is criticism of the concept, MSY is important to understand for everyone involved in fisheries management, as is the alternative concept of MEY, Maximum Economic Yield. This fact sheet describes the concept of MSY and discusses alternatives.
Articles from 2018
Guest column: Commissioner Karmenu Vella - We cannot turn our backs on the oceans
2018.10.29: EU countries have to make sure that the agreed EU policies are duly carried out at home, writes Mr Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in a guest column for the Baltic Eye web magasine.
Guest column: Commissioner Karmenu Vella - We cannot turn our backs on the oceans
Olle Torpman: The Baltic Sea problem – an ethical problem
2018.10.02: The Baltic Sea’s environmental problem can be solved, but, if the region’s actors are to be able to agree on practical solutions, we must start to bring more ethics into the debate, writes the philosopher Olle Torpman.
Olle Torpman: The Baltic Sea problem – an ethical problem
Fish stocks and profitability are favored by quotas below the maximum level of sustainable outtake
2018.09.18: EU fisheries ministers will soon decide next year's fishing in the Baltic Sea. The EU Commission's proposal suggests that measures may be too little - and too late - for some of the most threatened stocks, writes Henrik Hamrén.
Fish stocks and profitability are favored by quotas below the maximum level of sustainable outtake
Baltic Eye’s work is analysed in a new international study
2018.09.14: "Responding to today's environmental challenges requires science to be integrated into politics and practice," says researcher Chris Cvitanovic, author of a new study on Baltic Eye's work to bridge the gap between science and policy.
Baltic Eye’s work is analysed in a new international study
Guest column: Small-sized cod weaken economy for fisheries
2018.05.31: The cod stocks in the Baltic Sea currently comprise only small fish, all approximately the same size. Cecilia Hammarlund writes that the imbalance in size composition results in lower earnings for fisheries.
Guest column: Small-sized cod weaken economy for fisheries
Guest column: Can we save the Baltic Sea?
2018.04.06: In order to achieve the goals of having a healthy Baltic Sea and sustainable fish stocks, we need to fish a bit less over a period of time, so that the fish can grow and the stocks can recover- which will also result in more stable returns for the fisheries, according to Swedish MEP Linnéa Engström.
Guest column: Can we save the Baltic Sea?
Comment: New but weak technical measures for EU fisheries on its way
2018.01.18: To meet the objectives set in the Common Fisheries policy (CFP), the European Parliament, on January 15, voted on a proposed regulation defining how, where and when to fish – the so called technical measures. A revision of these measures was needed in order for fisheries to fulfil the landing obligations. In particular to reduce the number of unwanted (/undersized) fish in the catches and to minimise habitat degradation associated with fishing activities, primarily caused by demersal (bottom) trawling.
Comment: New but weak technical measures for EU fisheries on its way
Towards a fisheries management more in sync with the ecosystem
2018.01.11: Ecosystem-based management for the Baltic Sea fisheries has long been a mainly theoretical vision. But now a group of dedicated scientists are about to turn theory into practice.
Towards a fisheries management more in sync with the ecosystem
Articles from 2017
Comment: A sad day for the European eel
2017.12.11: Text: Henrik Svedäng.
Comment: A sad day for the European eel
Large-sized cod at a historic low in the Baltic Sea
2017.12.07: The scarcity of large cod in the Baltic Sea has never been as great as now, a new study shows. If this is a sign of genetic change, we risk creating an ecosystem in which large predatory fish have disappeared.
Large-sized cod at a historic low in the Baltic Sea
Setting catch limits above scientific advice is bad business
2017.10.19: Setting catch limits for Baltic cod above scientific recommendations is not only hurting the stocks, but is also bad business, according to new study.
Setting catch limits above scientific advice is bad business
Catch quotas for 2018 decided
2017.10.10: The Baltic Sea cod once again became the biggest loser when the EU fisheries ministers decided on next year's catch quotas. The ministers also voted against the proposal for a total ban on eel fishing in the Baltic Sea.
Baltic Sea Centre’s message to the ministers: "Listen to science"
2017.09.26: In a letter to all EU fisheries ministers, the Baltic Sea Centre urges them to follow the scientific advice for sustainable catch quotas in the Baltic Sea next year.
Baltic Sea Centre’s message to the ministers: "Listen to science"
Scientists: A fishing ban would be perfectly in line with scientific advice
2017.09.11: The European Commission's proposal to ban eel fishing in the Baltic Sea next year is welcomed by fisheries experts Gustaf Almqvist and Henrik Svedäng at the Baltic Sea Centre. They just wish the proposal had been presented much earlier.
Scientists: A fishing ban would be perfectly in line with scientific advice
New action plan for nature conservation efforts
2017.05.18: Today, 21 May, the European Natura 2000 Day is celebrated for the first time. But up to now the member states have not fulfilled their nature conservation efforts. The European Commission has adopted a new action plan to help them speed up the work. Researcher Sofia Wikström at Baltic Sea Centre urges the Commission to develop sustainable measures for fishing in protected areas.
New action plan for nature conservation efforts
Denmark and Germany continue to catch cod - despite ban
2017.02.21: Despite poor population growth and critically low numbers of mature cod, Denmark and Germany allow their fishermen to trawl during the closed period. The decision has both ecological and political implications, says Baltic Eye’s fisheries expert Gustaf Almqvist.
Articles from 2016
The Story of the Baltic Sea 2.0
2016.11.09: Over the years, the human perception of the ocean has changed. Our present-day tale of the Baltic Sea must weave together society, people and the sea, says researcher Susanna Lidström.
The Story of the Baltic Sea 2.0
Cod stocks are going from bad to worse
2016.10.24: Fishing quotas for the western cod stocks must be cut drastically. In addition, the EU cannot wait any longer to introduce a much more ecosystem-based fisheries management. This is the message in Baltic Eye’s consultation reply to the European Commission regarding next year’s fishing in the Baltic Sea.
Cod stocks are going from bad to worse
Analysis: Fishing permitted despite protection
2016.10.24: If protected areas are to have any real effect, we must limit all harmful activities, including fishing.
Analysis: Fishing permitted despite protection
Increased risk for long-term negative effects on stock
2016.10.11: Baltic Eye researcher Gustaf Almqvist finds it unfortunate that scientific advice is not followed by the Council of fisheries ministers.
Increased risk for long-term negative effects on stock
Analysis: A century in the Baltic Sea - from a fish & chips perspective
2016.10.07: The sea is constantly changing. Some species disappear while others flourish - all depending on the conditions. The question is if we humans are equally open to change. Are we, for example, prepared to change our eating habits after what the sea can give?
Analysis: A century in the Baltic Sea - from a fish & chips perspective
EU ministers' decision on the cod quota is about the future of fishing
2016.10.06: On 10 October Europe’s fisheries ministers meet in Luxembourg to decide on how much fish can be caught in the Baltic Sea next year. Their most important decision regards the Baltic Sea cod stock – especially the western stock.
EU ministers' decision on the cod quota is about the future of fishing
Analysis: Finally we have a plan!
2016.07.14: The new multi-annual plan for fisheries in the Baltic Sea, which today has been formally adopted by the European Parliament, will be able to provide Baltic fishermen with better stability and opportunities for long-term planning.
Analysis: Finally we have a plan!
Stimulating workshop about EBFM
2016.07.14: Last week 50+ people from science, policy and fisheries sectors met in Stockholm to discuss how to implement an ecosystem based fisheries management (EBFM) in the Baltic Sea.
Last updated: November 9, 2023
Source: Östersjöcentrum