Even aged 84, Holger Sjogren nimbly untangles the knots in his herring internet because it was lowered into the murky depths of the Baltic Sea. “When the trawl bag comes up, the seagulls give us a concert,” he stated.
Sjogren, a fifth-generation herring fisherman, has been trawling from the waters close to Kotka in southeastern Finland for greater than 5 many years. Within the harbour, dozens of shoppers eagerly await his return to purchase his catch straight off the boat.
Nonetheless, the Baltic, which is enveloped by a few of Europe’s most industrialised nations, is likely one of the most closely polluted marine ecosystems on the planet. Quite a few species are threatened, and quotas tightening, leaving fishers in Finland fearing that their trawlers may be mothballed for good.
“Many people are scared that they will have to quit,” stated Sjogren. Whereas some consultants have known as for a discount in fishing quotas to safeguard the delicate ecosystem, others concern {that a} halt to fishing might have extra opposed results than constructive ones.
In October, the European Union diminished Baltic herring quotas by as much as 43 % for 2024 – effectively in need of the entire ban initially proposed by the European Fee in August.
However with Baltic herring making up roughly 80 % of Finland’s annual catch, fishers consider they’re being punished for an issue they didn’t trigger. “We take so little herring that it makes no difference to the stock, on the contrary, it revitalises the stock more than it consumes,” Sjogren argued.
