Fisheries

The populations of commercially important species such as cod and salmon are declining due to overexploitation and environmental degradation. Current levels of fishing for the most commercially important species are unsustainable.

Fish stocks are becoming dangerously low

Total fish catches have increased tenfold since the early 20th century as a result of more effective open sea fishing, decreased predation by seals and increased fish production due to eutrophication. Eutrophication is a double-edged sword, however, as it also has negative impacts, particularly in spawning areas, leading to reductions in the reproductive success of many fish species. Another man-made problem affecting natural reproduction is the widespread damming of the spawning rivers of migratory fish species like salmon, migratory whitefish and brown trout, whose natural populations have suffered greatly.

About 90% of the total fish catch in the Baltic consists of herring, sprat and cod. Even though salmon only accounts for about 1% of the total catch by weight, it is still a commercially important species.

A lack of oxygen in established spawning areas combined with overfishing has drastically reduced cod catches in the Baltic Sea since the mid 1980s (Figure 38). In 1992, the spawning stock biomass of cod in the Baltic reached a record low. Particularly in the eastern Baltic, cod stocks are seriously overexploited and their numbers are below safe biological limits.

The spawning stock biomass of herring has been decreasing steadily (Figure 39), due to the unfavorable changes induced by falling salinity levels, in the zooplankton communities the herring feed on. The spawning stock biomasses of herring in the Central Baltic are currently low, whereas in the Bothnian Sea and the Gulf of Riga stocks have been thriving.

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Fixing fishing conditions for 2004

Over-exploitation is common despite attempts by the International Baltic Sea Fishery Commission( IBSFC) to regulate offshore fishing. Annual international assessments of stock sizes and exploitation levels are currently carried out through the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) for the IBSFC.

In its 29th Annual Session held 29 September – 3 October 2003, Vilnius, Lithuania, the International Baltic Sea Fishery Commission fixed fishing conditions for herring, sprat, cod and salmon in the Baltic for 2004.

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Principal catch quotas in the Baltic Sea

 (in tonnes, resp. units of salmon)

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Bye-bye by-catches!

	The fishing nets used in the Baltic do not only catch fish. By-catches of marine mammals and seabirds are so high in some areas that they threaten local populations and ecosystems. Up to 17 % of the wintering populations of long-tailed ducks and velvet scoters in the Gulf of Gdansk and eiders in the Kiel Bight, are killed annually in fishing nets.

	Around 30 species of fish are caught in the Baltic, but commercial fisheries are dominated by just three species -cod (Gadus morhua), herring (Clupea harengus membras) and sprat (Clupea sprattus) - which make up about 93% of total catch in the Baltic Sea and about 75% of the catch in the Belt Sea and the Sound. More than half of the herring and sprat catches are currently used to make fish meal and fish oil. The most important species for coastal fisheries are herring, eel (Anguilla anguilla), salmon, trout (Salmo trutta), flounder (Platichthys flesus), pike (Esox lucius), perch (Perca fluviatilis), pike-perch (Stizostedion lucioperca), smelt (Osmerus eperlanus), blue mussels (Mytilus edulis), whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) and shrimp (Crangon crangon).

HELCOM and fishing

Efforts made by HELCOM and the International Baltic Sea Fishery Commission (IBSFC) to protect and restore wild salmon populations have started to bear fruit. Estimates indicate that wild salmon production increased over the period 1995-2001 by one million individuals, raising the annual yield of juvenile wild salmon from 0.3 milllion to over 1.3 million. However, yields of juvenile wild salmon in certain rivers are sill alarmingly low, particularly in smaller forest rivers around the Bothnian Bay and Estonia.

The Baltic sturgeon is presumed to have virtually disappeared from the waters of the Baltic Sea, so HELCOM has launched a restoration project to save it from extinction.

Contacts

Chairman of HELCOM HABITAT

Jan Ekebom
Metsähallitus
P.O. Box 94
FIN-01301 Vantaa
Finland
Tel: +358 0205644457
Fax: +358 0205644350

HELCOM Secretariat

Professional Secretary
Mr. Juha-Markku Leppänen
Tel: +358 9 6220 2227