A report published on Thursday 4 October by the Our Fish NGO tends to confirm the very high rate of cod discards during fishing activity in Baltic waters, despite the fact that the discarding of fish has been banned for the past three years in that area (disembarkation obligation).
Independent findings thus suggest that 10.1 million western and eastern Baltic cod were illegally discarded and not counted towards catches n 2017. For eastern Baltic cod in 2017, scientists estimate that just 1/17 of all unwanted, undersize catches were landed and recorded. The report aims to heighten the awareness of EU fisheries ministers who are to meet on 15 October to fix total allowable catches (TAC) and quotas in the Baltic for 2019. Ministers are called upon to “prevent the further decline of these exhausted iconic fish stocks through overfishing and illegal and unreported discarding at sea”, Our Fish writes.
In 1984, fisheries landed more than 440,000 tonnes of eastern Baltic cod. Today, however, they are allowed to bring home under 40,000 tonnes a year. In addition, individual fish over 45 cm in length have virtually disappeared.
Nine years ago, the western Baltic cod stock was also on the brink of collapse and, although it has begun to recover, it is still considered as very fragile due to poor recruitment, Our Fish explains. Rebecca Hubbard, Our Fish Programme Director, urges EU fisheries ministers to “correct the Commission’s proposal re-aligning it with scientific advice”.
In its proposal, the Commission suggests a 31% increase for cod TAC in the western Baltic (see EUROPE 12086). For eastern Baltic cod, a 15% catch reduction is proposed, bringing it to 24,112 tonnes (including Poland: 6,378 tonnes and Sweden: 5,512 tonnes). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)