Even though no improvement has been seen, Sweden will ask the Commission to prolong the dispensation from EU limits on the dioxin content in herring and salmon, the minister says.
The present EU dispensation that allows Sweden and Finland to utilize fish with higher concentration of dioxin and PCB than the Union limit expires after 2011. No decrease has been observed in herring from the Bothnian Sea since the 1990s, partly due to the low exploitation: the portion of old herring in the stock increases, and old herring has accumulated more dioxin.
The Swedish Board of Fisheries recently published a report concluding that most small-scale fisheries along the east coast would “most probably” be wiped out if the dispensation were revoked, and Minister of Fisheries Eskil Erlandsson said he was going to ask the Commission to prolong the dispensation after 2011.
There are 430 licensed fishers from the city of Kalmar and northward along the Swedish Baltic Coast, according to the report, and most of them would have to quit if the Swedish/Finnish exemption were revoked, the report concluded.
It would also severely affect the local industry of “surströmming” production in the central north. Surströmming is fermented herring – delicious to locals, incredibly foul-smelling to others – producers of which already have size problems. Due to ecosystem changes, the average size of the fish in the stock has decreased, with an increasing portion not filling the production requirements.
Dioxins are environmental pollutants, possibly carcinogenic. The higher concentrations in the northern parts of the Baltic are mainly explained by the proliferation of paper and pulp industries along its shores.