The recent recovery of the Eastern Baltic cod stock was held forth as a success story, while fleet overcapacity was mentioned as a fundamental problem, as the Swedish Government handed over a major report on the windfalls of fisheries policy to the Riksdag (Parliament).
The report, “An Account of Efforts in Fisheries Policy”, prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, dealt with developments after 2007. The Riksdag had asked for a more detailed account than the reports routinely delivered together with the Government’s annual national budget proposal.
Interviewed on the Government website, Agriculture Ministry Chief of staff Magnus Kindbom remarked that a series of measures had been taken to deal with overcapacity, but added that it does take time to see the results appear in nature.
He mentioned that scrapping subsidies and offers of severance payment, as well as the introduction of an ITQ system last year, had led to some fleet reductions.
A recent Swedish television program showed, however, how the system of Individually Transferable Quotas could be used by owners of some of the country’s biggest vessels, who sold their quotas, then flagged out their boats and went on fishing outside occupied Western Sahara under convenience flag.
“We are going in the right direction”, Kindbom claimed, and added that “through active work in the EU, we’ve come farther on several issues than we thought possible.”
He especially mentioned the situation for the Baltic cod, where illegal fishing had decreased dramatically, where a ban against high grading has been introduced, and where technical measures such as increased mesh sizes had improved reproduction conditions.
“There is more cod there than has been for many years”, he said, adding that, besides political steps, natural conditions had been very favourable for the species’ spawning.