To protect a dwindling whitefish stock, the Swedish Board of Fisheries is planning to establish a non-fishing zone in the southern Bothnian Sea.
The Board considers the lavaret or common whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) as important for both professional fishermen and anglers. Historically, this fishery has been particularly widespread in the Bothnian Bay where catches have been decreasing “drastically” since the mid-1990s, the Board said.
The plan to establish a non-fishing zone in the archipelago off Söderhamn some 250 kilometres north of Stockholm, now subject to a public consultation, is intended to protect some of that stock’s spawning area.
The Swedish Government has commissioned the agency to set up six such non-fishing areas in different waters, the effects of which are to be evaluated by 2015.