Sweden’s favourite fish has become a starving dwarf.
Decades of predation threaten to wipe out the unique Baltic cod. It is our most popular food fish, but also a social creature. The environment minister says he has looked the cod in the eye – and sensed its soul. And there are promising signs in the depths: the primal force of evolution is the hope of both man and cod.
18 years ago, journalist Peter Löfgren made the film The Last Cod. By then, the cod stock in the Baltic Sea had declined significantly. Today, cod is back but feeling worse than ever – it's small, skinny and full of worms
A Swedish company has been authorised to investigate the possibility of extracting mineral nodules from the seabed in the Gulf of Bothnia. They are said to be important for the green transition. Researchers will now provide answers to how the extraction would affect the organisms living at the bottom of the sea.
I write this as COP 16, the UN summit meeting on biodiversity, has just ended in the Colombian coastal city of Cali. On a human level there is progress: indigenous people are promised a stronger voice in the fight to protect threatened species on planet Earth. Many of these nations live near the oceans, some on islands that are also threatened with extinction because of climate change. Their voices will be important for the protection of those who inhabit the oceans.
