The Council of the European Union has reached an agreement on Baltic Sea fishing opportunities for 2025, following total allowable catch (TAC) proposals for several key stocks in the area made by the European Commission in August.
The council followed the commission’s proposal on several elements of the agreement, but the commission has stated concern over components that it said are less likely to contribute to the recovery of certain stocks, such as sprat and western herring, and may not be in line with applicable legal frameworks, including the Baltic Multiannual Plan set by the E.U.
“Overall, the dire environmental state of the Baltic Sea leads to the pressing need to fully implement E.U. legislation at all levels in an effective and systematic manner,” the E.U. Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries said.
For eastern and western cod, the council has decided to set bycatch TACs only, so fishing will remain limited to accidental catches made while fishers are targeting other species. Western Baltic herring will, in principle, also have a bycatch-only TAC, but the council has maintained an exception for small-scale coastal fishers.
Catches of salmon in the main basin of the Baltic Sea will also be limited to bycatch, except during the summer in the coastal areas of the Aland Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia.
For Bothnian herring, western herring, central herring, and Riga herring, the council agreed to 2025 TACs of 66,446 metric tons (MT), 788 MT (bycatch only), 83,881 MT, and 41,635 MT, respectively. The eastern and western cod bycatch-only TACs are 430 MT and 266 MT, respectively, while the plaice TAC remains the same as 2024 at 11,313 MT.
Next year’s main basin salmon TAC is 34,787 MT, the Gulf of Finland salmon TAC is 10,144 MT, and the sprat TAC will be 139,500 MT.
By comparison, 2024’s limit for Bothnian herring was 55,000 MT, western herring was 788 MT, central herring was 40,368 MT, Riga herring was 37,959 MT, eastern cod was 595 MT, western cod was 340 MT, main basin salmon was 53,967 MT, Gulf of Finland salmon was 10,144 MT, and sprat was 201,000 MT.
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) advised zero catches of Baltic herring, Eastern Baltic cod, and salmon. It also recommended low catch levels of Baltic cod.
However, the Council of the E.U. determined that if the TACs for these stocks were established at the levels advised by ICES, the obligation to land all catches, including bycatch from stocks in mixed fisheries, “would lead to the phenomenon of choke species.”
The council also added that many fisheries, including small-scale coastal fisheries for species not managed by a TAC, would also need to ...