Today, the European Commission released its proposal on fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea for 2012. The Commission states that the overall objective of the proposal is to make fisheries in the Baltic Sea environmentally and economically sustainable by following the recommendations of scientists. Increases in TACs for both cod stocks are therefore suggested, following the rules stipulated in the management plan. The Commission is also proposing to increase the TACs for Western and Gulf of Bothnia herring. Substantial cuts are being proposed for salmon, Riga and central herring, sprat and plaice.
The proposal is in line with the scientific advice issued by ICES earlier this year. The largest cut proposed is for salmon in the main basin, where a 79% decrease in TAC compared to last year is advocated in order to recover the populations to sustainable levels. In the case of plaice the Commission is going even further than the ICES advice which suggests a “no increase in effort”. The Commission is proposing a 25% reduction in TAC for this species, according to its newly adopted rules on TAC setting for stocks with insufficient data.
Given that Baltic plaice has a small quota and the fishery is not of significant economic value, it will be an interesting test case to see whether the Council agrees with this strategy of large cuts for species with poor data. Several Member States have raised murmurs of discontent with the policy.
| Stock |
ICES fishing zone subd. |
TAC proposal 2011 |
TAC 2011 |
TAC proposal 2012 |
| Eastern Cod |
Sd 25-32 |
58 957 |
58 957 (-) |
67 850 (+15%) |
| Western Cod |
Sd 22-24 |
18 800 |
18 800 (-) |
21 300 (+13%) |
| Western Herring |
Sd 22-24 |
15 884 |
15 884 (-) |
20 900 (+32%) |
| Bothnian Herring |
Sd 30-31 |
91 000 |
104 369 (+14%) |
106 000 (+2%) |
| Riga Herring |
Sd 28.1 |
32 660 |
36 400 (+11%) |
28 878 (-21%) |
| Central Herring |
Sd 25-29, 32 |
91 640 |
107 420 (+17%) |
72 178 (-33%) |
| Plaice |
Sd 22-32 |
3 041 |
3 041 (-) |
2 281 (-25%) |
| Main Basin Salmon(Expressed by number of individual fish) |
Sd 22-31 |
250 109 |
250 109 (-) |
52 974 (-79%) |
| Gulf of Finland Salmon (Expressed by number of individual fish) |
Sd 32 |
15 419 |
15 419 (-) |
10 884 (-29%) |
| Sprat |
Sd 22-32 |
265 969 |
288 766 (+8%) |
213 110 (-26%) |