A strategic Government report on future Swedish fisheries urges “radical change”, including better distribution of fishing rights between the fishing sector, fishing tourism and leisure fishing, giving priority to what has “the greatest value to society”.
The 122-page report “Fiske 2020” (Fisheries in 2020) by the Swedish Board of Fisheries says it wants to point out a road to fisheries carried out within the frames of a sustainable ecosystem in ten years.
Presenting the report in an Op-Ed article in Sweden’s largest morning daily Dagens Nyheter, the agency’s Director-General Axel Wenblad recognised that in these “times of reconsideration” the question to be answered is what a “credible fisheries management” would need to look like, both on a national and on the EU level.
Stating that a “holistic approach” is needed, he held forth as a positive factor that there is now a general consensus, both in the industry and the general public, that change is necessary.
Some of the changes mentioned in the report were:
- Fisheries must be steered over to bigger items that have been allowed to spawn more times. As for the Baltic cod, Wenblad mentioned fish bigger than 80 centimetres as a goal, as compared to today’s minimum length of 38 centimetres. “The road we have chosen is based on allowing the most important species in the ecosystem to grow to its optimal size”, he wrote.
- Incentives for fishermen to fish in “a responsible way” should be created in the form of transferable rights, to catch or days-at-sea quotas.
- A transferable rights system would carry with it an immediate halt to all scrapping or fuel subsidies. The sector should finance parts of the management.
- Priority should be given to those fisheries most valuable to society, be it small-scale coastal fisheries, fishing tourism or leisure fisheries. ”Economic, social cultural and recreational values” will be the basis for the distribution of rights. “Fisheries that have the least impact on the environment shall also be given priority”, the report said.
In his presentation, Wenblad emphasised that this was “not a wishing-list, but the measures proposed are based on our gathered experience of the present management system, from the perspective that most things are possible if we just stay purposeful and think long-term”.
“It’s a system where everyone seems to win – both the ecosystem and the fisherman”, he added, pointing to the example of the Sound between Sweden and Denmark, where an almost 80 years old trawling ban has given an abundance of big cod. This, he said, has opened for touring boat fishing, along profitable professional net fishing.
The report will be available in English translation later this month.