You have probably read and perhaps experienced yourself that the herring in the Gulf of Bothnia and the rest of the Baltic Sea has been greatly reduced in recent years. So much that even the number of cans of sour herring that you can buy are limited. The reason for this is the overfishing by large industrial trawlers, where the catch is turned into fishmeal and used for animal feed. An important consequence is that local fishery along the coast is suffering. In extension this will cause jobs to disappear, people to move and the economic base to diminish. Industries that initially have no direct connection to fisheries also suffer as their customer base decreases. In the debate about herring in the Baltic Sea, it is easy to forget that the community businesses along the coast have to pay a high price for fish that can no longer be caught locally.

If the Goal of the Baltic Sea to Action is implemented then …

The Baltic Sea Call to Action is a grassroots movement and non political. We want as many associations, companies and other organizations as possible of different categories in our 60 Baltic Sea municipalities to join us in our appeal. We also want people in the other nations around the Baltic Sea to support us in the appeal. In this way, we show how broad the support for the appeal is and can put extra strong pressure on decision makers at the national level to act.