Reader’s opinion|We commercial fishermen hope that the role of fishermen would be seen more widely, not only as producers of domestic food, but also as stewards of the environment.
Finland the environmental center (Syke) can see State of the marine environment -spotlights in his assessment, but at the same time says that the state of the Baltic Sea is still mostly weak. Nutrient loading is still the biggest problem in the Baltic Sea. For decades, we commercial fishermen have repeatedly brought up the effects of eutrophication on fish stocks and fishing. We therefore share our concerns with the researchers, but we are surprised that Syke’s publication raises fishing as one of the factors that weakens the state of the sea area.
When a person who is not familiar with the matter reads in a newspaper that fishing weakens the state of the Baltic Sea, he understands it to mean that fishing is one of the reasons for poor water quality and blue-green algae blooms. In reality, it’s the opposite. Fishing is the only way of life that removes nutrients from our sea. Depending on the fish species, 4–8 kilograms of phosphorus and about 25 kilograms of nitrogen rise from the sea with each ton of catch. Specialist researcher at the Natural Resources Center Jari Setälä has calculated that Finnish commercial fishermen removed almost 400 tons of phosphorus and almost 2,000 tons of nitrogen from the Baltic Sea in 2022.
in Finland commercial fishing is not “wild” or unregulated, but commercial fishermen follow rules and restrictions approved by the authorities. The quotas for herring, grayling and salmon are distributed in the EU on the basis of scientific advice. Commercial fishing is a business activity, and it is also regulated by economic marginal conditions, which is why, for example, herring quotas have not been fully fished for years.
The herring trawl and gillnet fisheries in the Bay of Pohjanlahti have met the sustainable fishing standards of the MSC certification since 2018. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea ICES has recently predicted a very positive development of herring stocks in the central sea area of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland.
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Fishing is the only way of life that removes nutrients from our sea.
Coastal fishing with nets and seines mainly produces food fish, and as a rule, not only a certain species of fish but also a certain size of fish are caught. Fishing is regulated by size, gear and time restrictions. Most recently, the bottom size of walleye and the smallest permitted knot spacing of whitefish nets have been increased.
According to the assessment published by the Finnish Natural Resources Agency in 2023, the walleye population of the coast and archipelago is in good or at least reasonably good condition. On the other hand, the number of coastal fishermen has fallen by less than half in the 21st century, and the fishing effort and catch of that group have fallen at the same pace. A return migrant cormorant and a gray seal have entered the sea, the population of which is already reaching the numbers of the beginning of the 20th century. The amount of fish eaten by these two species is already many times the amount caught by coastal fishermen.
Archipelago is still on the hot spot list of the worst polluters of the Baltic Sea Protection Commission (Helcom). Professor Kalervo Väänänen and compiled by more than a hundred other experts In the Blue Book of the Archipelago Sea increasing fishing has been raised as one of the most important measures to improve the state of the Archipelago Sea.
We commercial fishermen hope that the role of fishermen would be seen more widely, not only as producers of domestic food, but also as stewards of the environment. Our workplace is at sea, and therefore we have perhaps the most up-to-date information about the sea. The good state of the sea is vital for the continuity of our economy and we still want to be involved in influencing it through our work.
Jarno Aaltonen
chairman
The Finnish Professional Fishermen’s Association
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