Nature Fund: Politicians’ decisions threaten to collapse the Baltic Sea ecosystem

According to environmental non-governmental organizations, the decision of the European Union (EU) fisheries ministers on catch quotas in the Baltic Sea next year threatens to completely end the Baltic Sea ecosystem, said Marta Lilientāle, World communications project manager. Broad Fund for Nature (PDF) contacted the LETA group.

According to environmental non-governmental organizations, the decision of the European Union (EU) fisheries ministers on catch quotas in the Baltic Sea next year threatens to completely end the Baltic Sea ecosystem, said Marta Lilientāle, World communications project manager. Broad Fund for Nature (PDF) contacted the LETA group.

At a meeting of the EU Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers in Luxembourg, a decision was made on catch quotas in the Baltic Sea for 2025.

PDF says that, ignoring the concerns of environmental NGOs, EU fisheries ministers have again ignored marine ecological limits as well as scientific advice for individual species. Despite evidence of the already poor state of the Baltic Sea and legal obligations to restore fish stocks to a good state, under the Common Fisheries Policy and the Baltic Sea Multiannual Plan, this decision based on short-term political ambitions threatening species such as cod, herring and barnacles.

According to PDF, the decision will further affect the sensitive marine ecosystem and accelerate the decline of biodiversity.

Ministers have increased the catch quota for central Baltic herring by more than 100%, based on the conclusion that the number of fish has increased largely due to less pressure from the fishing industry. However, scientific evaluations show that the herring population is still not in good condition. Furthermore, these predictions are based on uncertain and limited data and simplifications of ecosystem processes. New research shows that estimates of fish stocks and recovery pathways for overfished species are often too optimistic. That is why the herring in the middle of the Baltic Sea urgently needs effective recovery measures, not only fishing restrictions during spawning.

Katrina Pedersen Shimer, Senior Advisor on Fisheries Policy, emphasizes the need for more conservative catch quotas and additional recovery measures to restore the herring population. This is essential not only for biodiversity, but also for the recovery of other species such as cod and salmon, as well as the Baltic Sea fishing industry.

The fixed sprat catch quota is lower than last year. However, as the sprat population has been declining for years, more efforts were expected to conserve the population of this fish.

Large industrial fishermen often catch herring and central Baltic herring together, and the lack of monitoring of fisheries makes it difficult to accurately estimate the amount of each species being caught. As a result, this sprat catch quota also has a direct impact on the central Baltic herring, whose population has already declined. Herring and barnacles are an integral part of the Baltic Sea food web – they are an important food source for top predators such as cod, salmon, Baltic porpoises and seabirds. Their overfishing causes ripple effects throughout the ecosystem.

Furthermore, much of this fish will not be for human consumption at all, but will be processed into fishmeal to feed salmon in aquaculture and pigs in the agricultural industry, PDF says.

The NGO welcomes the decision to keep the lionfish catch quota low, as an increase would likely have led to more undercatch of Baltic cod. However, to increase the chances of cod population recovery, additional management measures are needed, including no trawling in areas of critical cod habitat and the introduction of remote electronic monitoring.

Important fish species are already on the brink of collapse, with numbers at historic lows. Scientific experts from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) advised ministers to set zero catch quotas for severely depleted fish stocks such as eastern cod and western herring.

EU ministers chose not to follow this proposal, instead maintaining by-catch quotas for western herring and both Baltic cod stocks.

Remi Koseti, an expert on maritime policy issues of the organization “Stand In Risk”, expressed great concern about the fishing opportunities that have been accepted in the Baltic Sea. Despite the recent vote of the European Parliament, which emphasized the need to fully implement the conservation principle and protect endangered species, fisheries ministers have set fishing quotas again which ignores the vital needs of the Baltic Sea ecosystem.

According to Cosetti, this irresponsible decision will degrade the ecosystem and threaten the livelihood of fishermen and coastal communities. Such short-term decisions, which ignore our environmental responsibility, are particularly inappropriate in an age when the world is already under the influence of an environmental crisis.

Magda Jentgena, head of the Baltic Sea and Freshwater PDF Program, believes that today’s decisions regarding catch limits for pelagic fish stocks in the Baltic Sea are very unsatisfactory.

Environmental groups have hoped that EU fisheries ministers will recognize the importance of fish species such as herring and bream as food for many predators such as cod and salmon. At the same time, the fishing limits set for barnacles and herring in the central Baltic are too high to restore the balance of the ecosystem.

Biodiversity expert “Coalition Clean Baltic” Andrea Cervantes emphasizes the inconsistency between biodiversity goals and catch quotas. Despite the global agreement on biological diversity reached in Montreal last year, which set goals for the sustainable use of biodiversity, current fisheries management continues to fail to translate these goals into effective actions. It is impossible to deal with the loss of biodiversity and the increasing pressure of climate change on the fish populations of the Baltic Sea while at the same time reducing the resources of the ecosystem to the lowest level. Careful use of reserves is a climate and environmental concern that cannot be ignored when setting fishing quotas for 2025, Cervantes emphasizes.

“Deutsche Umwelthilfe” policy advisor Izabela Seeger warns that by putting short-term economic interests first, EU fisheries ministers have once again risked setting fishing quotas, harming all some the ecosystem and the fishery itself. Fishermen are suffering from ongoing management errors, as fish numbers are now only a fraction of what they once were. The situation of herring and cod in the western part, traditionally the main species in the German Baltic Sea fisheries, is still dire. Without fish, there are no fisheries – but good fisheries management aimed at ecosystem health is still needed.

We have already reported that the chances for Latvian fishermen to catch bream in the Baltic Sea in 2025 will decrease by an uncertain 30.6%. More here.