Swedish reactions to the ICES TAC advice for 2010 were guardedly positive, from NGOs as well as from the government administration.
”The important thing now, for the cod recovery to remain permanent, is for EU fisheries politicians to continue following the management plan”, said Svante Axelsson, Secretary General of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SNF).
In a statement on the organisation’s website, SNF points out that a study by Swedish scientists, shared with SNF, shows that both successful recruitments and somewhat more careful management has contributed to the positive development, adding that the fishing pressure on the same high level as before, although with good recruitments, or lower pressure with bad reproduction, would not have created the same stock increase, according to the study.
The statement was headlined ”Scientists’ advice already show effects!”.
The Swedish branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) underlined that the ICES scientists stress that their estimates “wholly assume” that there are no miscalculations in their assessments, “something that is extremely hard to guarantee”.
“The scientists emphasize that the eastern stock remains on a historically low level, but that there is now a better chance for recovery. But the presumption for that is that poaching and by-catches of young cod are stopped completely”, said WWF-Sweden Secretary General Lasse Gustavsson.
WWF-Sweden added that there are no guarantees that reproduction will stay on a high level for the next years, and urged “great caution”.
From another side, the Swedish Board of Fisheries’ Director General Axel Wenblad said he was “encouraged to see that the positive trend continues”, adding that “now it’s up to the EU Council to make the only and wise decision to follow the ICES recommendations and their own management plans, when, under the Swedish Presidency, they will set next years’ quotas in October”.
He also stressed the necessity of a diminished fishing effort in the Baltic, for illegal fishing to stop, and for discards being reduced.
“To over-utilize the cautious growth in the cod stock that has now been registered would be devastating to the ecosystems of the Baltic Sea, for the situation of the cod, for future fisheries and for consumer access to that fish”, Wenblad said.