Thanks to a 70-year old trawling ban, cod fishing in the sound between Sweden and Denmark could now be counted as 100 times more productive than in neighbouring Kattegat, a new Swedish study shows.
With an annual outtake of some 2,500 tonnes in Öresund, cod catches in the ten times larger Kattegat has dwindled to 200 tonnes. Even though TACs for the Kattegat have been reduced and protected areas have been introduced in recent years, those measures have not been enough, according to the report, written by Henrik Svedäng at the Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment in Gothenburg.
Although the scientific advice for cod fishing in the Kattegat has been no fishing at all for nine straight years, the EU Council has every year allowed some.
A general ban on trawl fishing in the Öresund was introduced in the 1930s, then as a maritime safety measure since the width at its narrowest point is just 4 kilometres. Since then, most fishing has been done by nets.
According to Svedäng, this has been the main reason for distinct differences between the stocks in Öresund and in the Kattegat to the north. Very big fish, a rarity in Kattegat, are often found in the sound, contributing to better recruitment since big – and old – cod are more fruitful.
Even though indiscriminate trawling is generally seen as more financially profitable than net fishing, catches are now so much smaller in the Kattegat than in the Öresund, and the only explanation, says Svedäng, is to be found in the much higher fishing pressure there.
“There is an economic rationale for trawl fishing, but then the fishing fleet has to be adjusted accordingly”, he adds.
The cod stock in the Kattegat has decreased by 95 percent since the 1970s and species such as haddock and pollock have disappeared from those waters completely.
“The Kattegat used to be at least as productive as the Öresund, and today there is hardly any fish left there at all. It’s a huge common resource that has just been embezzled”, Svedäng says.
His report was commissioned by the European Parliament’s Fishing Committee, and Svedäng will present it there on June 2.