In a joint initiative by authorities, anglers and landowners, re-stocking of pike will hopefully help to solve a lack of predator fish in Stockholm’s scenic outer archipelago.
The sharp decline of the Eastern Baltic cod stock from the mid-1980s caused a seriously disturbed balance in the sensitive ecosystem there, in its turn partially explaining both greatly increased algae bloom and a new scarcity of pike and perch in the archipelago, traditionally popular with anglers.
Less cod meant growing stocks of herring and sprat, its main prey; the growing herring and sprat stocks feeding on both pike and perch fry, as well as phytoplankton. The lack of phytoplankton caused an abundance of zooplankton, a factor in algae bloom.
In later years, however, the Eastern cod, in its heydays one of the world’s largest cod stocks, has showed signs of recovery, and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), providing scientific advice for the quota decisions in the EU Council, recommended increased TACs both in 2009 and 2010.
There is still too little predator fish in the lesser inlets and bays in the outer archipelago, where the cod does not go, experts say, and provincial authorities, organised anglers and landowners are now launching a plan to re-stock pike beginning this summer.
The goal is to have a pike stock of fully grown fish by 2015, spawning and reproducing in a natural way by 2020.