Disappearing Fish! Industrial catches for fishmeal in the Baltic are vanishing important bycatches of salmon

Across the EU, fishers face stringent control measures. The captain has to formally report  estimated catches, in terms of weight and species. When these landings are controlled there is a margin of tolerance of 10% per species, although catches from the Baltic are allowed a margin of 20%. This is part of European efforts to combat illegal fishing and to ensure more accurate catch reporting for management.

The EU adopted their new Fisheries Control Regulation in 2024 with more stringent rules for catch reporting in place for all fishers. However, those vessels with the largest mixed and unsorted catches, mostly destined for fishmeal factories and thence exported outside of the Union, have been given an exemption from the margin of tolerance reporting requirements by the Commission, provided they land at one of seven Listed Ports. 

These ports are all located in Baltic Member States, with six in Denmark and one in Latvia. Denmark is the EU country with the highest volume of landings and unselective fishing by trawlers has now been further incentivised by the Commission through the listed ports provisions.  

According to the Commission, “the margin of tolerance is the maximum allowed difference between catch estimations by captains of fishing vessels and the actual weight of the fish caught. The (listed ports) derogation allows operators to benefit from a more flexible approach to catch reporting in logbooks when landing in listed ports.”

As LIFE already reported in this article, this exemption disproportionately benefits large vessels landing high-volume, low-value catches—particularly those in the fishmeal sector—allowing them to bypass stricter reporting requirements. This unfair system places other segments of the fleet at a competitive disadvantage and raises serious concerns about transparency and sustainability, highlighting the need for a level playing field in the industry.

Currently, the Commission has chosen to rely on ineffective methods for measuring bycatch, a Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) system using CCTV video cameras. These have been in place for many years and have not proved effective in accurately reporting bycatch,  let alone analysing the species composition of unsorted small pelagic catches. 

LIFE advocates for using more effective, modern control techniques like eDNA to assess the species composition in unsorted mixed pelagic catches. In the Baltic, it should be utilised to monitor and identify the bycatches of cod and salmon in particular. DTU Aqua has conducted research and trials into this technology for several years and the regional Baltic Sea Fisheries Forum (BaltFish) control expert group has also discussed its application. Although additional work is necessary to develop a model through which eDNA data can give biomass estimates. Such a system would enable the total biomass of bycatch species to be accurately estimated, as has been proven to be already more effective than CCTV, especially for identifying the presence of salmon and cod in unsorted mixed pelagic catches. Therefore, such tests should be made compulsory for all landings at Listed Ports.

Salmon bycatch

Salmon is a valuable commercial species in the Baltic, facing multiple challenges and in urgent need of effective conservation and management. A huge area of concern is the significant but often overlooked bycatch of salmon in industrial pelagic catches. According to the ICES Baltic Salmon and Trout Assessment Working Group (ICES 2011, WGBAST), estimates have shown that around 0.1% of the total catch may consist of salmon in these industrial fisheries. This corresponds to approximately 100,000 salmon per year. By comparison, the total salmon quota for the entire Baltic Sea for 2025 was around 45,000 salmon. The pelagic vessels usually do not have a quota for salmon and should therefore be prohibited in fishing in areas where they are likely to take it as bycatch. 

There are around 40 unique salmon stocks along the Swedish coast. However, several of these stocks are in deep crisis, and recently we have seen a number of alarming reports from rivers where fishing has either been stopped or severely restricted due to record-low migrations. 

By failing to collect accurate data on bycatch of commercially and ecologically important species such as salmon and cod, the Commission is prioritising industrial fishing over fisheries conservation, severely compromising the future of the fishery, and privileging one fleet segment (fishmeal) whilst penalising another (for human consumption) and the communities that depend on it. 

We see an urgent need for modern, independent and effective controls to be applied to pelagic fishing and urge that an eDNA-based control programme be introduced without delay.

We therefore call on the Swedish government, which currently chairs the regional management body Baltfish, to launch a Joint Recommendation for such within the group as soon as possible.  

We must act now – we have the tools, and it’s a travesty to continue to turn a blind eye to these important vanishing fish and the derived social consequences.