Less and less herring for coastal fishermen

Small-scale coastal fishermen in the Baltic Sea have been warning for many years that the availability of herring and herring is declining. The Swedish Marine and Water Agency also sees the same development, reports Swedish Radio Ekot.

– We share the concerns expressed by the fishing industry and this is confirmed when we see the amount of fish caught in the last two years. There are noticeably lower catches, says the investigator Jens Persson to the radio.

The agency sees several factors that can affect availability. These include large-scale trawling, but the environment and climate-related factors can also have an impact.

However, many small-scale fishermen are convinced that it is trawling that has led to the shortage. According to fisherman Dennis Bergman in Norrsundet, there is no time to wait.

– For 20 years it has been declining year by year, and the last three years it is incredibly bad. It’s not even worth fishing for herring anymore, unfortunately. There is no profitability in herring fishing at the moment,” he says.