Baltic Sea Archives - Saving Seafood

These Cod Have Been Shrinking Dramatically for Decades. Now, Scientists Say They’ve Solved the Mystery

July 7, 2025 — A new study reveals that decades of overfishing have altered the evolution of cod in the eastern Baltic Sea.

The research, published in the journal Science Advances on June 25, aimed to answer a question that had puzzled scientists for decades: What’s behind the dramatic size change in eastern Baltic cod?

These fish used to be enormous. In 1996, the biggest Baltic cod grew more than three feet long. By 2019, however, their sizes had been cut in half, and the cod’s weight was but a fraction of its previous glory. Now, the average cod can sit in a person’s cupped hands.

For decades, fishers in the Baltic Sea caught cod relentlessly, using large nets. Smaller fish could escape more easily, presenting an external pressure to remain smaller. But directly connecting the population’s decrease in size to evolution—and not other environmental factors, such as pollution or temperature change—is notoriously difficult for scientists.

Baltic Sea fishing quotas agreed for 2022 with huge cuts in the cod catch

October 13, 2021 — The Council for the European Union reached an agreement on next year’s fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea at the latest AGRIFISH Council meeting in Luxembourg this week, with some total allowable catch (TAC) levels still exceeding scientific recommendations.

Following much of the European Commission’s proposal published in August, substantial quota reductions have been made for multiple stocks, including an 88 percent cut for western Baltic cod to just 489 metric tons (MT).

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Four NGOs demand halt to fishing cod, herring in Baltic

May 29, 2019 — The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Oceana, Coalition Clean Baltic and Our Fish are calling for the European Commission and various countries’ fishing ministers to block the fishing of western Baltic herring and eastern Baltic cod altogether in 2020.

The groups say they are responding to scientific advice provided by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which on Wednesday warned that both species are in a “dire state” and should not be fished.

ICES also warned that the number of young western Baltic cod entering the fishery in 2018 and 2019 are the lowest on record and suggested their catch allowances be set to the lowest levels.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Going fishing? Watch out for chemical weapons

May 15, 2019 — The US Army will destroy stockpiles of mustard gas and nerve agents this summer as part of its commitment to a 1997 treaty banning the production and use of chemical weapons. The undertaking will require specialized personnel—toxic-materials handlers, chemical-accountability managers, surety specialists, ammunition surveillance/quality assurance specialists, and a coterie of supervisors.

In the decades immediately following World War II, America’s military wasn’t quite so buttoned up about its chemical cast-offs. Until Congress outlawed dumping of munitions at sea in 1972, there were an estimated 74 offshore chemical weapons disposals through 1970, 32 of which took place in US waters and 42 abroad.

Oceanographers at Texas A&M University have estimated that at least 31 million pounds of munitions of all types were dumped in waters off 16 states and in the Gulf of Mexico, although “that could be a very conservative estimate.”

The problem is not limited to US waters. Sections of the Baltic and North Seas are known to contain large numbers of abandoned chemical weapons, and such munitions have turned up off the coasts of France, Sweden, and Germany.

Read the full story at Quartz

Report: UK, Denmark, Ireland quotas well in excess of scientific advice

February 11, 2019 — European Union member states are predicted to fish Northeast Atlantic stocks as much as 312,000 metric tons (MT) above the scientific advice in 2019, according to a new report published by charitable think-tank New Economics Foundation (NEF).

The latest edition of NEF’s annual “Landing the Blame” report states of the 120 total allowable catch (TAC) decisions made at the December 2018 AGRIFISH Council negotiations, 55 TACs or 46 percent were set above the advice of scientific bodies, predominantly the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

“This is continuing the trend of permitting overfishing in E.U. waters with Northeast Atlantic TACs set 16 percent above scientific advice on average – a big increase from the 2018 TACs (9 percent),” the report said. “The earlier negotiations for the 2019 Baltic and deep sea TACs were also set above scientific advice, with five out of 10 and eight out of 12 TACs exceeding advice, respectively.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

EU Negotiators Agree on Multi-Annual Plan for Fish Stocks in the Baltic Sea

March 28, 2016 — Leaders of the European Union reached agreement in March on a multi-annual plan (MAP) for certain fish stocks in the Baltic Sea. The compromise among representatives of the European Fisheries Council, Parliament, and Commission follows 10 months of trilogue negotiations.

During that process, Parliament representatives argued strongly against efforts by the Council to set aside key elements of the EU’s reformed Common Fisheries Policy. The result is a plan that places greater emphasis on flexibility than on strict adherence to the law’s requirements.

Last spring, after the Commission published its MAP proposal, Parliament established its position on the Baltic plan by agreeing to a negotiation mandate in line with the CFP. The policy calls for restoring and maintaining fish populations above levels that can produce what is known as maximum sustainable yield (MSY), the largest average catch that can be taken from a stock without significantly affecting reproduction levels.

Read the full article at the Pew Charitable Trusts

EU fishing sector accuses Pew of knowingly publishing misinformation

November 19, 2015 — The following is an excerpt from a story originally published on November 18 by Undercurrent News:

European fisheries industry body Europeche has issued an open letter to Pew Charitable Trusts, warning that statements which are “demonstrably untrue and contrary to scientific opinion” can cause damage.

Javier Garat, Europeche president, pointed to the Pew report ‘Turning the Tide: Ending

Overfishing in North Western Europe’ as containing such misleading inofrmation.

The report makes the assertion that:

Fishing in recent decades, in pursuit of food and profit, off North West Europe has dramatically expanded
Calls by scientists and environmentalists to reduce fishing pressure have been ignored
Many fish stocks collapsed throughout the region
The reformed CFP should prove a successful first step in restoring and maintaining the health of the fisheries and fish stocks

The unambiguous view of the scientific community has been clearly stated, most recently at the State of the Stocks Seminar in Brussels, said Garat, quoting Eskild Kirkegaard, chair of the ICES advisory committee:

“Over the last ten to fifteen years, we have seen a general decline in fishing mortality in the Northeast Atlantic and the Baltic Sea. The stocks have reacted positively to the reduced exploitation and we’re observing growing trends in stock sizes for most of the commercially important stocks.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

European fishing body takes aim at environmental group

November 14, 2015 — A European fishing body has accused an environmental pressure group of making “misleading and untrue” statements” about the industry in an attempt to influence policy-makers.

The open letter from Europeche – whose members include the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation – is addressed to the Pew Charitable Trusts, which earlier this year published a report called Turning the Tide: Ending Over-fishing in North Western Europe.

“That report contained a number of statements which are demonstrably untrue and contrary to scientific opinion,” Europeche president Javier Garat said yesterday.

He added: “The motives for Pew to publish misleading and untrue statements remain obscure, but this is not a matter of misinterpretation of data or different opinion.

Read the full story at The Press and Journal

Lecturers talk global conservation efforts, decline of fisheries

October 31, 2015 — Artist James Prosek uses fish as inspiration for his work.

Prosek, who has also written 13 books, told stories at a Saturday lecture at SUNY-ESF of when he was 9 years old and trespassing rivers to fish. Though his youth involved catching and releasing 30 fish to take a picture, Prosek said he now prefers to catch one and eat it.

About 100 people attended the most recent installment of the SUNY-ESF Dale L. Travis Public Lecture Series, which focused on the future of fisheries. The lecture, entitled “The Future of Fisheries: Choices, Decisions, and the Role of the Arts,” featured five speakers: Karin Limburg, John Waldman, Prosek, David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes.

During the lecture, Swedish folk music played in the background.

The music tied into Limburg’s discussion about fish hook experiments in Gotland, Sweden. Limburg was the first of five speakers during the lecture, which took place in Marshall Hall on the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry campus.

The talk opened with a traditional reading and translation by a Haudenosaunee representative. The excerpt concluded with, “Now our minds are one.”

In addition to discussing her fish hook experiments, Limburg spoke in depth about her study of otoliths, which are chronometers in the ear of a fish that show its precise age and chemical makeup.

Read the full story at The Daily Orange

Bottom fishing banned in Danish marine parks

October 7, 2015 — Denmark, Germany and Sweden will stop all fishing activities over highly sensitive ‘bubbling’ reefs and will also end fishing with damaging bottom gear over reefs in protected Danish waters of the Baltic Sea and Kattegat.

This follows a new EU regulation – jointly recommended by Denmark, Germany and Sweden – which bans fishing activities in 10 Natura 2000 protected sites, although the fisheries restrictions only apply to specific reef zones within these areas.

Read the full story at World Fishing & Aquaculture