Managing the spatial and temporal pattern of Baltic herring trawl fishery: A potential tool for sustainable resource management?

• Herring, Clupea harengus is traditionally one of the main targets of the Baltic Sea commercial fishery. The bulk of catches (100,000 to 230,000 t in the last two decades), is taken from the Central Baltic Herring stock (CBH), showing a decreasing trend throughout the most of its management history. The CBH fishery is internationally managed on the basis of annual Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and a few technical measures. The excessive fisheries mortality, exceeding F-MSY, however, has been the major obstacle in management, not allowing reversing the declining stock trend and bringing it back to the safe biological limits. The CBH includes a number of local populations with different morphometric characteristics and growth rate. This paper is focusing on spatial aspects of herring fishery (effort allocation) in the North-eastern Baltic Sea where 40-60% of total CBH catch is taken. The results allow concluding that due to the spatial diversity in size/weight structure of herring, the fishing mortality in local stocks can significantly differ from values estimated for the combined stock. Consequently, consideration of spatial heterogeneity of stocks in fisheries management process can be an efficient tool for control of fishing mortality and stock protection.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Annan biologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Other Biological Topics (hsv//eng)

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