The Council of the European Union has reached an agreement on the fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea for 2024, following the European Commission’s proposal made in August this year.
The Council has followed the proposal as regards on the total allowable catch (TACs) for three stocks – plaice (rollover), salmon in the Gulf of Finland (+7%) and main basin salmon (-15%).
Taking stock of the specific environmental situation of the Baltic, the Council has decided to set by-catch allowances for the stocks of western herring, western cod and eastern cod, which means they can only be taken when accidentally caught while fishing for other stocks. Moreover, the existing remedial measures are kept.
According to the Council, the agreement therefore allows healthy fisheries of plaice, Riga herring, salmon in the Gulf of Finland and sprat to continue.
The Council also decided to allow targeted fisheries on central Baltic herring and Bothnian herring, with TACs of 40,368 tonnes and 55,000 tonnes, respectively.
For central herring, a 30-day closure is introduced to protect aggregation of spawners.
“Today’s decision was not taken easily, nor lightly, but we have a responsibility to set the fishing opportunities at levels that can help the stocks recover to the benefit of our fishers and their communities. But we should not shy away from addressing our most pressing challenge: the environmental status of the Baltic Sea,” EU Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius said.
“Our fishers are awaiting concrete actions from their countries to improve the condition of the Baltic Sea. I have said it at the ministerial meeting in September in Palanga and repeated it again to ministers: it is time to save the Baltic Sea. Fish stocks and biodiversity will continue to suffer if we do not start addressing its environmental situation now.”
