Baltic Sea sprat and herring trawling faces sustainability concerns

An investigation into sprat and herring trawling in the Baltic Sea highlights concerns regarding ecological, biological, and social sustainability. The Swedish-owned vessel S144 ‘Themis’, based in Skagen, is a primary actor in this sector, focusing on pelagic species.

In 2021, the vessel landed approximately 35,000 tons of fish, including 9,000 tons of sprat and over 2,000 tons of herring from the Baltic Sea. This catch is processed in Thyborøn into fishmeal and fish oil. The economic scale of this operation is significant; the 11,000 tons of fish processed into meal and oil were estimated to have a market value of approximately 35 million DKK.

Despite the European Union reducing quotas and stating that herring fishing is not biologically sustainable, herring is frequently caught as unavoidable bycatch during sprat trawling. This has led to calls for specific quotas for bycatch from the central Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga to address the management of different herring stocks.