Baltic Sea EU member states choose to set some quotas at precautionary levels to safeguard depleted fish populations but fail to proactively protect declining herring and cod stocks in the Baltic ecosystem
Today, after an unprecedentedly short Fisheries Council meeting in Luxembourg, EU fisheries ministers have reached an agreement on the Baltic Sea fishing opportunities for 2023. With many populations on a downward trend and an ever increasing risk of ecosystem collapse, these negotiations presented a missed opportunity to set the Baltic Sea on a path to recovery and a sustainable fishery in the long term.
”This is the third year the Commission really made an effort to take wider ecosystem considerations and set more cautious catch levels, and once again the Ministers counteract those ambitions. We are still far away from a management that understands that the ecosystem needs cannot be negotiated”, says Nils Höglund from Coalition Clean Baltic.
