EU ministers fail to help the Baltic cod but helped the salmon

CCB • October 16, 2018

Yesterday the EU ministers agreed to setting total allowable catches (TACs) for the main fish stocks in the Baltic Sea. Yet again, both Commission and Member States fail to understand the crisis for the cod and set a TAC at least 44% over scientific advice. In fact they even set the TAC 33% higher than the fishing industry called for. One positive take away is a small addition of a new rule to ban sea trout fishing outside 4nm line. Salmons are caught in open sea today but reported as sea trout. This added rule should in effect mean a strong rule to limit IUU on salmon catches in south Baltic.

The Fisheries Council meeting in October each year sets TACs for the main Baltic stocks. NGOs, CCB included, are usually disappointed of decisions taken as insufficient or not in line with scientific advice. This year was no different but CCB wants to underline 2 major setbacks and one positive thing.

Scientists have warned about the terrible state of the western herring stock for some time. This year they were forced to advice on a zero TAC. The Ministers failed to meet that advice, and far from it when deciding to set a TAC at 9001 t. The eastern cod stock in the main basin of the Baltic Sea consists of small, even tiny cod that spawn already at the size of 15-20 cm. Only 3-4 years ago spawning size was believed to be around 35-40 cm, and as a reminder, cod is normally a large and fast growing fish. In normal circumstances, a 4-5 kg cod is a rather normal fish, 10-15 kg a nice one. In the Baltic Sea today, such fish are almost unheard of. The fishermen are not even able to fill the quotas they have because the fish are simple not worth fishing for.

The ministers agreed to set a quota of 24 112 tonnes, that is 44% higher than the expert scientist advised. Actually the scientific advice is even lower because the advice given includes fish of the stock taken outside the areas in question: the area around Bornholm is a mixed cod stocks area. Scientists are aware of the mixing and given the TAC proposed to western cod, it’s likely that some 2-3000 t cods taken in this area are actually from the eastern cod stock, adding to the above set TAC.

This means that the TAC decided by ministers, and the resulting cod fishery linked to it, will mean an overshoot of the scientific precautionary advice with well over 50%.

Regarding the positive news. A small addition to the TACs was made regarding salmon. A new rule was agreed to stop fishing for sea trout outside 4 nautical miles from the coast. This may seem as a small detail but in fact in may have great effect on the current misreporting of salmon as sea trout. Scientific experts have noted this illegal activity mainly from Polish fishermen for years. Last year, estimations point to as much as 30 000 salmons misreported as sea trout.

This small new rule may prove to be a very effective way of stopping this illegal fishing and substantially help the wild Baltic salmon stocks.

Nils Höglund, CCB Fisheries Policy Officer, points out that

The annual cycle of setting TACs by EU ministers is simply not fit for purpose. The ocean health cannot be dictated on short term basis while we aim and strive to reach good environmental status; protect the sea from pollution; halt eutrophication etc in the long term perspective. Nothing in UN, EU or our regional goal of Baltic Sea Action Plan will be achieved unless this circus is changed.

Read the  EU final decision.

 

CCB is looking for a Network Officer to join our team at the CCB International Secretariat

By CCB • April 9, 2025
Coalition Clean Baltic – CCB is a politically independent network, uniting 27 environmental non-profit organizations, as well as partners and experts from 11 countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The main goal of CCB is to promote the protection and improvement of the environment and natural resources of the Baltic Sea region by encouraging new and constructive approaches and engaging people to become part of the solution instead of part of the problem. CCB Secretariat is based in Uppsala, Sweden.

Attacks on NGOs: 570+ Organisations Join Forces to Defend Civil Society

By CCB • April 7, 2025
European civil society organisations (CSOs) are currently facing an attack coming from certain Members of the European Parliament. Spearheaded by some MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP) and by far-right groups, this attack resorts to misleading arguments to fabricate a scandal. This portrayal has been amplified through the media, with notable exceptions of articles that attempted to clarify this misleading narrative. European CSOs are crucial to ensure the voices of citizens from different parts of Europe are heard in the EU institutions. Attacks against civil society are unfortunately not new and are exacerbated by this harmful idea. Furthermore, for-profit corporate lobbying is through the roof when compared to non-profit advocacy. In 2024, the 50 corporations with the largest lobbying budgets collectively spent nearly €200 million on lobbying the EU alone (66% more than in 2015). Comparing this to the funding environmental NGOs receive under the LIFE programme - €15.6 million annually of a €700 million yearly budget - truly shows the weakness of this ‘scandal’. This is why over 570 civil society organisations from 40 countries, including all EU Member States, have joined forces to call on those in power to act now and ensure that civil society is adequately funded and enabled to share our crucial perspectives . In this statement, we address: The source of this false narrative; Inaccurate claims made about how CSOs obtain and use funding; Why it’s paramount that CSOs receive sufficient funding; The need for civil dialogue to enable CSOs participation. Democracy is about the right of citizens to be collectively heard for building an inclusive society and a shared European future; properly funded independent CSOs are a crucial tool for that. We call on decision-makers to ensure civil society organisations can thrive and play their role in interacting with policy-makers in order to have a more fully informed decision-making process. Read the full statement here . -END Civil Society Europe (CSE) is the coordination of civil society organisations at EU level. Through its membership, CSE unites EU-level membership-based organisations that reach out to millions of people active in or supported by not-for-profits and civil society organisations across the EU. CSE was created by several civil society organisations as a follow-up to the European Year of Citizens and was established as an international not-for-profit under Belgian law in 2016. Since then, it has become the point of reference for EU institutions on transversal issues concerning civil dialogue and civic space.