Our goal: That the fishery in the entire Baltic Sea is restricted until a truly sustainable stock of herring is restored, with a healthy age and size distribution, which is also the basis for a sustainable ecosystem in the Baltic Sea. This is done by limiting fishery for herring to only what goes to direct human consumption, and that the catch is landed and processed locally in the home country.
Swedish fishery of herring is reduced to less than 6,000 tons, which is currently the amount that goes to human consumption and constitutes approximately 10% of the currently catch. This is a major step towards more sustainable fishing and better fisheries management. The same should also happen in other countries around the Baltic Sea. It is not healthy that herring, a central key species in the Baltic Sea ecosystem, should mainly be used as feed for the problematic sea-based salmon farming and other farm animals. This while naturally occurring salmon has decreased to record low levels, largely due to the lack of herring, its main food source. Similarly, cod has almost been eradicated from the Baltic Sea, and now there is an imminent risk that herring will meet the same fate.
Foto: B. Kihlberg
More coastal and small-scale fishermen are promoted. They locally create sustainable food that contributes to build current value chains and to rebuild value chains that have disappeared or has weakened. Herring as food for us humans is a fresh produce, and must be sorted and disposed of in close proximity to where being caught. In Sweden today, there are only a few local processing companies left. Local professional fishermen talk about difficulties in getting municipalities to start up processing companies. At present, there is also a lack of government support and a plan for the future.
Sweden and all other Baltic Sea countries would be more self-sufficient and safer in an increasingly uncertain global situation.
Foto: B. Kihlberg
Small- and medium-scale fish processing industries in Sweden and other Baltic Sea countries are secured and developed, which in turn creates jobs in coastal areas. And local and national dishes based on herring can continue to be found on our tables.
Together, we have more than 140 years of professional experience from business, public administration, universities and research institutes, and education areas within Sweden and internationally from Europe, North America and Asia. We are primarily driven by our commitment to the Baltic Sea, which we all live by. We can no longer stand by and watch as the Baltic Sea continues to be depleted.
The initiator is “Viks Kustråd”, started by Anders Lönneborg and Hans Ljungberg with initial support from “Collaboration for the Hanö Bay” in Skåne, Sweden. The working group now also includes Anders Nolin, Britt-Marie Kihlberg, and Birgitta Seeman.
The Baltic Sea Call to Action (Östersjöuppropet) is now an independent working group within the organization "Samverkan för
Hanöbukten".
From the start, we have actively interacted with various institutions, all working for a more sustainable Baltic Sea. A direct collaboration has been initiated with the Baltic Sea Contract Foundation. We have also discussed with scientists and politicians.
We are growing
The Baltic Sea Call to Action is continuously growing.
The Call to Action started in Skåne, Sweden, but we did early get support also from many areas up further north along the Baltic coast of Sweden. Also, Finnish and Åland private individuals have joined us in our appeal.
We need to grow to an even larger number of supporters, and we are therefore continuously searching for contacts that can help us spread our Call to Action appeal.
The existence of the herring in the Baltic Sea cannot be threatened.
The Baltic Sea Call to Action has and will continue to seek more support along the coast of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia in Sweden, and in other countries around the Baltic Sea coast.
We seek support to the Baltic Sea Call to Action from many associations, companies and other organizations of various kinds in all countries around the Baltic Sea. The management of the Baltic Sea fisheries is largely controlled by the EU, via political decisions from a majority of the countries around the Baltic Sea. With a strong voice we can increase the chance to make an impact on those who make decisions nationally and at the EU level. This is because the fisheries management of the Baltic Sea is largely controlled via the EU. Private individuals are of course also welcome to support the Baltic Sea to Call Actions. An increasingly strong public opinion is important in order to achieve a faster change for a sustainable Baltic Sea.
Together we will begin to contact and demand that the Swedish government and the responsible cabinet minister take their responsibility and ensure that they follow clear directives of EU and base their position regarding herring quotas on the precautionary principle.
We also want the Swedish government to support and invest in small- to medium-scale fish processing industries in several sites along the Baltic Sea coast, to create new jobs, a vibrant coastal community and making Sweden more self-sufficient in the increasingly uncertain global situation we currently live in.
At the same time, we achieve sustainable herring fishing and a more robust and healthier Baltic Sea.
We also try to find ways to reach relevant decision-makers in other countries around the Baltic Sea.
Actions
There are many different options for reducing herring fishery and we will not intervene in how to reduce fishery to go to only human consumption. It is up to experts and politicians to assess how best to do this. The main thing is that it gets done, and that it starts now, before it is too late. If there is a political will, a sustainable life can once again be created in the heavily overexploited Baltic Sea, a dying local fishery and therefore also dying coastal communities along the Baltic Sea coast. The governments in the Baltic Sea countries, as members of the EU, have every right to decide who gets to use the quotas. The first attempts at quota system in Sweden were introduced in the mid-1990s. During the mid-2000s the system changed, leading in 2009 to the current system of transferable and tradable individual annual quotas (ITQs). The result of the current ITQ system is that there has been a dramatic reduction in small and medium-scale fishing along the Baltic coast, while large-scale industrial fishery has increased with increasing boat sizes sometimes exceeding 60 meters in length. The current ITQ system must be fundamentally reformed to favor small-scale coastal fishery and to enable the establishment of a younger generation of Baltic fishermen. The Swedish government also has the ability to decide how far from the coast it is prohibited to trawl. Recently, the limit was extended from 4 to 12 nautical miles along a limited stretch. Currently as a shorter 2-year trial, which was originally intended to last for 5 years. The extended limit is to protect the places where the herring spawn and reproduce. It remains to be seen what effect this limited effort will have.
