Over fishing in the Baltic

Verging on idiocy

 

The following social media post "below my opinion" is from “Östersjö kontraktet” The Baltic Sea contract, it  popped up in my feed a couple of weeks ago. The post relates to the plight of the indigenous Baltic Sea herrings.

 

The Baltic herring and Atlantic herring are the same species, they differ in that the Baltic herring is somewhat smaller, they differ in name as well, the term Baltic herring distiguishes  where they are caught those caught north of the parallel running from around the southern tip of the Swedish island of Öland to Poland defines the fish as Baltic Herrings.

 

The Baltic Sea for those who cannot pinpoint it on the map is the sea flowing into the North Atlantic between the Danish capital Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö.

Along the Baltics western side is the east coast of Sweden other countries that lie on the Baltic are Finland, Russia with the city area of Saint Peterburg and the Kaliningrad enclave the three Baltic countries, Poland, Germany and Denmark,

 

The Baltic sea. it starts of as a salt water sea, the salt content diminishes the further north it flows, the locals call it sweet water but with all the polloution around the Baltic, the water could be renamed sour water.

 

Political indecisssions illustrate their imcompetence.

 

The Baltic herring has always been an integral part of the food culture in all these neighbouring countries for centuries so the wellbeing of the Baltic herring is extremely important and is monitored closely by many interested parties the EU, the national interested parties, international fishing and environmental groups, fisheries and wildlife departments here and all of the nine neighbouring countries, here in Sweden it has been a hot political potato over the past decade, here in Sweden seems to has become a football with all political parties having a kick and then they all leave it out in the rain.

 

In Stockholm, we have seen a huge price increase in Baltic Herring elevating it from the absolute cheapest fish to standard fish price. Also, the availability of the Baltic Herring has diminished from being a standard folk fare to almost a rarity “I’ll take the Baltic herrings, never know when I’ll get another chance”. There are many factors that have bought about this change, but the main culprit is overfishing. The usual candidates are seals, cormorants, pollution, the environment etc and of course overfishing.

There have and are still many impacts being felt by overfishing this single act has resulted in the disappearance of local fishermen from the many traditional fishing villages that dot the Baltic which in turn means there’s fewer fresh fish available in the smaller towns and throughout the country, they lose their jobs and their lifestyle. Related traditional seafood companies and industries can’t survive, and must close, more jobs disappear. The ecological fauna balance of the Baltic is disrupted as the food chain is put under pressure, the decline of a great food fish disappears from our menus, their disappearance is another nail in the coffin for the integral Swedish food tradition and culture. These results have been broadcasted and proclaimed on out news bulletins these past years; I assume it’s the same in other neighbouring  countries as well.

The overfishing is carried out by large trawlers taking their quote from the sliver of international waters running along the no-man’s-land of the central Baltic. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if we saw this catch in our supermarkets, but we don’t of course. The fish meal industry is driving this exploitation. Fish pellets for the fish farms predominantly the salmon industry, most of this fish meal is then formed into pellets using animal gelatine making the Salmon in turn inedible for the growing masses that shy away from meat or Muslims. Funny they don’t declare this information on their supermarket labels.

These big time fish feed companies are of coures exporting their produce, so they are depleting /destroying one enviroment for their own gains and the farmed salmon are destroying the area they are farmed in, killing two birds with one stone. This is a win win for them, buy shares now.

Well, what a travesty, who is allowing this or letting it happen, Sweden like our neighbouring countries have over the past years changed governments a number of times, so it really can’t be the current or past government or their parties politics, it must be just all of them!

Each neighbouring country has an environmental party or green party but obviously the plight of the Baltic herring contra fish pellets it’s not so important. Sitting in the halls of power and playing the game seems to be more important than this environmental challenge, for me all these environment parties have failed. Our Swedish minister claimed recently it was an EU issue and that all the effected countries needed to ban together to change EU legislation. What a crock of S…..

I believe its greed and extremely weak decision making by weak politicians who ignore the insight into making the correct decision, it’s too easy for them to pass the buck and hide behind big business and international pressure.

 

That’s my interpretation of the current plight of the Baltic Herring.

 

 

 

 

Östersjökontraktet

The following is document taken from “Östersjökontraktet”

 

A sharp increase in herring fishing would be irresponsible, warn Swedish Baltic Sea scientists. The reaction comes after the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea changed its scientific models and opened the door to increased fishing quotas in the central Baltic Sea next year.

Last year, herring stocks in the central Baltic Sea were deemed to be in such poor condition that the European Commission proposed a fishing ban, but this year’s fishing quota ended up being just over 40 000 tons. ICES now says that amount could triple next year, to 125 344 tons.

See risk of collapsed stocks– It is a very risky behaviour and almost foolish to let the fishing pressure increase so drastically,” says Henrik Svedäng, associate professor of marine ecology and researcher at Stockholm University’s Baltic Sea Centre.

He is joined by fellow researcher Sara Söderström, who specializes in fisheries management. The law requires fishing to be carried out at a level to achieve good stock status by 2020. It still has not been reached. This is not sustainable fishing. The ICES forecast relates mainly to fisheries and takes little account of the important role of herring in the ecosystem, including as food for other animals.

In the 2010s, stocks were overestimated by more than 100%. This led to overfishing from which herring have not yet recovered. It would be tragic and foolish not to allow the stock to recover,” says Henrik Svedäng.

Comment by the Baltic Sea Treaty Foundation

Action is needed!

In addition to reducing fishing quotas, the main thing that needs to be done is to stop industrial fishing, which involves large-scale trawling to produce fishmeal. This fishing practice accounts for over 90% of herring catches in the Swedish part of the Baltic Sea. However, the important coastal fisheries need to be stimulated in various ways. The fish caught there can become good food.

Strong political and other decisions and actions are needed to make the seas of the future swimmable, navigable, enjoyable and edible for generations to come!

The Baltic Sea Contract Foundation works actively to contribute to the development of the Baltic Sea environment towards a healthier sea. The work is done by many people around the Baltic Sea pledging to treat the sea well, which eventually has an impact. When many of us take responsibility, we have the opportunity to influence different actors and decision-makers to take major and important decisions and actions to create radical improvement on the key issues:

Eutrophication-Large-scale industrial fishing-Toxins and chemicals.

Help give the Baltic Sea a hand!

Sign and share! – www.ostersjokontraktet.se!

https://www.ostersjokontraktet.se/

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Email