The conflicts within Swedish fishing are very fierce. Small-scale coastal fishermen on the east and south coasts face a small number of giant trawlers from the West Coast. I was looking forward to tough discussions and fruitful exchanges at this year's Fishing Forum. But met with pleasant company in a luxurious mingling environment.
In a report from 2020, published by BalticSea2020, the authors believe that large-scale fishing in the Baltic Sea is neither economically nor financially profitable for the state. On the contrary, it costs us all big money.
In Brussels there are at least 30,000 lobbyists to influence the political decisions. Many of them work for the fishing industry, to ensure that the Council of Ministers makes decisions that favor industrial fishing. And scientists who have a dissenting opinion are intimidated into silence, according to fisheries researcher Reiner Froese.
The ocean's resources belong to all citizens. We want healthy seas, full of fish and shellfish. So - how could fishing for cod in the Baltic Sea be allowed to continue despite all the warning signs? How can herring fishing get the green light even though EU law prohibits continued fishing? For a long time, I lived under the delusion that the European seas were managed democratically. That it is only in dictatorships that predatory behavior is deliberately allowed to destroy life below the surface and destroy the living space of all living things.
The New Economics Foundation think tank was able to show in a report already in 2019 that EU countries took 300,000 tons more fish into the sea than the researchers in ICES recommended.
It’s now been scientifically proven. If you stop fishing, the number of fish increases! A new report from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) confirms that no-take zones enhance fish populations and combat the effects of eutrophication.
