Total marine fisheries extractions by country in the Baltic Sea

Catch (t x 10 6 )
Catch ( t x 10 6 )
22 Total marine fisheries extractions by country in the Baltic Sea: 1950-present, Rossing, Booth and Zeller
on the behalf of each country, as well as our estimates of IUU including adjustments derived from national
datasets and ICES stock assessment reports, as well as estimates of unreported landings, discards, and
recreational catches. Our total catch
reconstruction adds IUU catches of
approximately 12.3 million t (nearly 30%)
to ICES landings statistics (Figure 6).
Total reconstructed catches peaked in
1997 at approximately 1.5 million t∙year -1 ,
being 36% higher than the officially
reported landings of 1.1 million t∙year -1 for
that year (Figure 6). More recently, our
estimate of total catches of approximately
1 million t∙year -1 for the late 2000s are
about 32% higher than reported landings
(Figure 6).
The majority of IUU catches began to
occur during the early 1980s, and
increased dramatically in the early 1990s
(Figure 7). During the period 1950-2007,
IUU catches were dominated by
unreported landings, which accounted for
approximately 47% of our total estimate
of IUU catches and represented 11% of the total reconstructed catch (Figure 7). Prior to 1991, when
members of the former eastern bloc were assumed not to have unreported landings, unreported landings
represented approximately 5% of our total reconstructed catch (1950-1990). After 1991, when the former
eastern bloc had dissolved, unreported
landings represented approximately 20%
of our total reconstructed catch (1991-
2007; Figure 7). Overall, unreported
landings added approximately 14% to
landings presented in the ICES landings
statistics by all countries for the period,
1950-2007.
Discards were also signficant,
representing approximately 7% of the
total reconstructed catch, and adding
approximately 9% to the landings
officially reported by ICES (Figure 7).
Discards accounted for 30% of all
estimated IUU.
Recreational catches represented
approximately 3% of total catches for all
species, and added
approximately 4% to
landings reported by ICES
for the period 1950-2007
(Figure 7).
Overall, we found herring to
have the greatest total
catches of all taxa in our
reconstruction (Table 19).
Herring catches increased
from 1950 and were the
dominant catch from the
early 1970s until the late
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Total reconstructed catch
ICES landings
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Year
Figure 6. Total reconstructed catch (solid line) for the Baltic Sea
Large Marine Ecosystem, as well as landings reported to the ICES
landings statistics (dashed line) for the period 1950-2007.
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Unreported
ICES + Adjustments
Recreational
Discards
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Year
Figure 7. Total reconstructed catch by component, including
adjustments, unreported landings, discards and recreational
catches for the Baltic Sea Large Marine Ecosystem for the period
1950-2007.
Table 19. Estimated total reconstructed catches (t), including landings reported in
the ICES landings statistics on behalf of each of 9 coastal countries, and our estimates
of IUU for the Baltic Sea LME for the period 1950-2007.
Common
name
1950-
1959
1960-
1969
1970-
1979
1980-
1989
1990-
1999
2000-
2007
Cod 2,042,508 2,158,775 2,663,809 4,116,265 2,210,467 1,330,000
Herring 1,954,598 2,677,685 4,286,361 4,825,795 4,462,950 2,837,924
Sprat 311,278 853,904 1,972,783 697,506 4,000,094 3,601,777
Flatfishes 204,424 292,079 273,711 233,797 337,789 313,874
Salmon 27,936 38,232 35,269 42,430 53,624 21,461
'Others' 604,107 847,254 1,046,931 712,717 816,253 571,796