Fishery: World Wildlife Day - we want to raise awareness of the Baltic Sea cod

Author: BalticSea2020
Year published: 2020

Today is World Wildlife Day, a day in order to celebrate and raise awareness of the world's wild fauna and flora. We want to take the opportunity to raise awareness of the Baltic Sea cod. The cod is the Baltic Sea's foremost predator fish and to remain in balance, the ecosystem requires a viable stock with substantial numbers of large cod.

cod pixabay

After many years of overfishing, cod stocks are now in crisis. Currently, to all intents and purposes, there are only small cod, in far too poor condition to hunt for food. BalticSea2020 has been working for a sustainable cod fishery for several years and started the project "Save the Baltic Sea cod" in 2017 with the aim of strengthening the cod stock, e.g. by proposing a recommendation for a ban on trawling for cod. By means of this, we want to ensure future sustainable cod fishing that benefits the local business community. We also want to raise awareness of the emergency situationen of the cod, among the general public, but also creat opinion on propsals that can solve the situation and strengthen cod stocks. 

Ahead of the European Council meeting in autumn 2019, about the upcoming fishing quotas in the Baltic Sea, we, together with a number of other environmental organisations, asked EU fisheries ministers to take emergency measures to save the cod in the Baltic Sea. In mid October, descisions were made and important steps were taken for the cod as all targeted cod fishing in the eastern Baltic was banned. Read more about the decisions here. The descision is very important as it is one of the few measures that can be taken in the short term and that can help the cod to recover.

BalticSea2020 and the project ”Save the Baltic Sea cod” will continue to work for the cod and propose concrete solutions. Read more about the project ”Save the Baltic cod” here to find out more about our initiative, and don't forget to sign up to receive our newsletter by emailing redaktion@raddaostersjotorsken.se, so you can stay updated on the cod in the Baltic Sea and get more information about our work.