Fisheries
Overfishing and destructive fishing practices like bottom trawling represent a major threat to the Baltic ecosystems. In 2008, fishermen from all the surrounding countries caught more than 50 different fish species in the Baltic, for a total of 742 thousand tons of fish. Finland, Sweden and Poland are the largest Baltic fishing nations. Sprat and Herring are the main targeted species in the Baltic, representing 85% of the total catches. They are often caught by industrial fishing vessels and used for the production of fish meal. Cod, flounder, perch and salmon are other important Baltic commercial species. Fisheries in the Baltic outside the 12-nautical-miles zone are mainly managed by the European Commission, however Baltic countries manage fisheries inside the 12 nautical miles and can adopt management measures for their entire own fleet as long as they are more stringent than the current EU law. Fisheries management is poor in the Baltic and most of fish stocks, assessed by ICES, are overfished and even fall outside the safe biological limits – a status that is far away from sustainable fishing.
