Swedish anglers in the Baltic may face sharp restrictions in their quest for pike this summer. The Board of Fisheries has proposed a three-units-a-day limit for anglers with hand gear, and only those fish between 40-75 centimetres may be kept.
The background to the proposal is the dwindling Baltic stocks of pike, a classic for the Swedish angler, musing over life in a small boat on a quiet summer evening, while the sun is setting. Statistics from professional fisheries show an 80 per cent decrease in catches over the last 15 years. Almost all, or 94 per cent, of pike caught today stems from recreational fishing, according to the Board of Fisheries.
The proposed regulation is for the Swedish Baltic coast as a whole, but may be limited to the Stockholm archipelago and southward, since that is mainly where the problem is. One reason for the decrease in pike, scientists say, may be the overfishing of cod in the Baltic, and the following disturbances in the ecosystem: sprat, not threatened by cod, eat pike fry, or deprive them of plankton, a shared food source.