Stop industrial trawling in the Baltic Sea

Christina Nordh

Updated 20.47 | Published 20.45

 

With the fishing ban, it is hoped that fish stocks will have time to recover. Photo: Robin Lorentz-Allard

The Baltic Sea report was voted through in the EU Parliament on Thursday.

This means that large-scale industrial fishing is stopped - temporarily.

The decision to pause large-scale industrial fishing until the stocks of herring and sprat have recovered is controversial.

Small-scale is prioritized

But the report's main author, EU parliamentarian Isabella Lövin (MP), is satisfied:

- The Green Party has long pushed for a stop to industrial trawling. The fact that this is now the parliament's official position is a huge green win, she tells SVT Nyheter.

- Now the small-scale fishing that puts food on the table should be prioritized, not the industrial trawlers that vacuum the Baltic Sea.

"Need for recovery"

All Swedish parties voted in favor of the report and a pause in fishing.

The decision is also welcomed by researchers at Stockholm University.

- Industrial fishing is currently responsible for the largest catches of herring and Baltic herring in the Baltic Sea. The two largest stocks – the central herring and the Baltic herring stock in the Gulf of Bothnia – are at very low levels compared to what they were before, and are in need of recovery, says Sara Söderström, researcher at the Baltic Sea Center, Stockholm University, to SVT.