The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has issued new scientific advice for Baltic Sea stocks, which highlight that the western Baltic cod (Gadus morhua) stock has not improved for another year with a further downward revision in biomass and upward revision in fishing exploitation rate.
However the good recruitment in 2016, if protected from overfishing, may help replenish this severely overfished stock, it said.
ICES advises that the commercial catch of western Baltic cod in 2018 should not exceed the range 1,376 metric tons (MT) to 3,541 MT.
The eastern Baltic Sea cod stock, meanwhile, has shown few positive signs of development in the last year with fish spawning at smaller sizes, and fewer small fish seen in the survey overall, said ICES.
The stock is still below all biomass reference points and suffers a fishing mortality well above sustainable levels. However, by using a new kind of model, ICES has some confidence that the relative fishing pressure in the eastern Baltic cod is above sustainable levels and that the biomass is just above the minimum spawning stock level.
Its total catch advice for the stock in 2018 is 26,071 MT, and because cod in the eastern Baltic is also harvested by Russia, the corresponding EU quota for eastern Baltic cod should be reduced to 24,767 MT.
ICES also highlighted that while the EU landing obligation became effective in the Baltic in 2015, discarding still occurs and is considered to be a more substantial issue in the eastern Baltic than in the western Baltic. Limited observer data indicates that undersized cod represents nearly 11 percent of the total catch volume, while in landings data undersized cod represents less than 2 percent.
