In 2004, Sweden reviewed its trawling limits to replenish fish stocks. But 20 years later, a magazine investigation reveals that they have been moved closer to land instead of further away, with no explanation given.
Sweden has been in the midst of a fishing mystery since May 3, when Sveriges Natur, the magazine of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, raised the alarm about a decades-old oversight.
The limit put in place to protect fish populations threatened by overfishing had been modified in the wrong direction. Closer to the coastline, it extends the fishing area rather than restricting it. As a result, 330 square kilometers (127 square miles) of sea could not be protected due to this discrepancy.
This error was found on the coast of Halland, in the Kattegat, the strait to the west of Sweden that separates it from Denmark. This maritime zone was the subject of a 1932 agreement between the two neighboring countries on the sharing of their fishing zone.
“In the Kattegat, the fishermen of each country have the right to fish up to a distance of three nautical miles from the coast of the other country,” stipulates the agreement.
When the Swedish Sea and Water Management Agency decided in 2004 to reduce fishing grounds by moving them farther from the coastline, this area was treated differently because of the agreement.
However, Sveriges Natur’s investigation revealed a lack of documentation explaining why the new Kattengat boundary had been established there.
“The coastline or shoreline used to draw the trawl limit in the Kattegat is not documented anywhere at the Swedish Agency for Sea and Water Management, apart from a draft with pencil lines and compass holes on a nautical chart to which Sveriges Natur had access,” says the magazine. The previous limit, set in 1993, was not on the map either, although it was supposed to be the reference for this modification.
It was therefore an arbitrary decision that delineated the zone for trawling, a technique that consists of trapping as many fish as possible in large nets towed behind a boat. In Sweden, 73% of the fish in 2021 was caught by trawling.
A fish crisis in Sweden
In Sweden, herring and cod are endangered by overfishing. Herring catches have fallen drastically, from 45,400 tons caught in 1993 to 3,055 tons in 2021.
Regarding the collapse of cod stocks, “it’s not just cod that’s at stake. It’s a top predator, and its disappearance will have repercussions for the entire Baltic Sea ecosystem,” explains Jan Isakson, Director of the Fisheries Secretariat, following the release of a detailed report on the situation in the Baltic Sea.
Although introducing trawling limits is a step forward, more effective measures are still needed, according to the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, as the fish population is not recovering quickly enough. In Canada, cod stocks in Newfoundland have not recovered since their collapse in 1992 despite the measures made by the country.
“Fishing quotas also need to be reduced, especially in the Baltic Sea,” explains Stina Tano, an employee of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. This organization advocates more effective measures, including true compliance with trawling limits.
Indeed, trawling is still possible within the protected area, under certain conditions. In 2021, almost 9% of all Swedish trawl catches in Swedish waters came from inside the trawl-excluded zones, according to Sweden’s largest environmental organization. This questions the effectiveness of such a limit.
Following the investigation, the Swedish Sea and Water Management Agency has committed to revising the trawling boundaries in both the Baltic Sea come spring and the Kattegat in autumn. But this time, the limit will be defined numerically.
