The annual scientific advice on Baltic Sea fish stocks provided by the International Council for Exploration of the Seas (ICES) is now available. It paints a mixed picture, with recovering cod stocks, decreasing pelagic stocks in the central Baltic Sea and salmon populations in increasing trouble.
When ICES presented its scientific advice on Baltic fish stocks on 27 May, it became clear that with the cod stocks still on the increase this is having effects on the populations of pelagic species in the central sea basin. The situation calls for a more ecosystem-based approach to Baltic fisheries in the future, taking species interactions into greater account.
This year, the advice for a majority of the stocks is based on the “transition to maximum sustainable yield (MSY) approach” – a stepwise reduction in fishing mortality set to reach FMSY by 2015.
For Baltic cod, the recommendation is to follow the established long-term management plan resulting in a 15 percent increase for the eastern stock and a 13 percent increase for the western stock.
The status of the different Baltic herring stocks is more variable. For herring in the central Baltic, ICES recommends a TAC of no more than 92,000 tonnes which would imply a 23 percent cut in the current quota. A similar decrease is adviced for herring in the Gulf of Riga: 22 percent reduction, or 25,500 tonnes. Western Baltic herring sees a 3 percent cut, while no change is suggested for herring in the Bothnian Sea and Bothnian Bay (managed jointly) in the north.
Baltic sprat is most likely affected by increased predation from cod and the advice for next year is further cuts of 25 percent.
Baltic salmon – which is made up of a number of wild populations, the viability of which is variable – continues to have problems with smolt survival and the ICES advice for the main basin and Gulf of Bothnia is a decrease in effort of 50 percent compared to 2010, or a maximum catch of 54,000 individuals. For salmon in the Gulf of Finland the ICES advice is that there should be no fishing on Estonian and Russian wild stocks, and that the overall catches should not increase.