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 cease fishing operations.
“In order to strike a balance between maintaining fisheries, in view of the socioeconomic implications of failing to do so and of the need to achieve a good biological status for those stocks, and taking account of the difficulty of fishing all stocks in a mixed fishery at maximum sustainable yield, it is appropriate to maintain the TACs exclusively for unavoidable bycatch for Western Baltic herring, Eastern Baltic cod, Western Baltic cod, and main basin salmon,” it said.
The council’s agreement has come under fire from several NGOs, claiming that ICES sustainable limits have been ignored by E.U. fisheries ministers and that next year’s package could contribute to further degradation of the ecosystem and hasten biodiversity decline.
On the herring TAC increase, FishSec Senior Policy Advisor Cathrine Pedersen Schirmer said that more precautionary fishing limits are urgently needed to rebuild the stocks.
“This is crucial not just for biodiversity but also for the recovery of other species, such as cod and salmon, and ultimately for the Baltic fishing sector. Today’s decision goes in the opposite direction,” she said.
She acknowledged that the sprat TAC has been set at a lower level than this year, but highlighted that the population has been in decline for years and that more efforts than a TAC decrease are needed to preserve the fish.
NGOs have, on the other hand, welcomed the decision to keep a low quota for plaice, as increasing the quota would likely result in higher bycatch of Baltic cod. However, to increase the chances of cod recovery, they say additional management measures are needed, including trawl-free zones in essential cod habitats and the introduction of remote electronic monitoring.
Seas At Risk Fisheries Policy Officer Remi Cossetti also expressed concern over the 2025 Baltic fishing opportunities, saying the quotas overlook the essential needs of the Baltic Sea ecosystem.
“This irresponsible decision will exacerbate ecosystem decline and threaten the livelihoods of fishers and coastal communities. Such decision-making, which neglects our environmental responsibilities, is profoundly short-sighted in an era already marked by environmental crises,” Cossetti said.
According to Deutsche Umwelthilfe Policy Advisor for Fisheries and Marine Conservation Isabel Seeger, E.U. fisheries ministers have taken risks in setting the fishing quotas, doing both the ecosystem and the fisheries a disservice.
“The victims of this chronic mismanagement are the fishers, as many fish populations are now only a fraction of what they once were. The state of western herring and cod, the traditional key species of German Baltic Sea fisheries, remains catastrophic. Without fish, there is no fishing – but a rethink of fisheries management centering ecosystem health is not yet in sight,” she said.
