Response to interpellation 2023/24:213 on salmon fishing
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns fishing quotas and the protection of the salmon stock in Ljungan. KD argues that the government has negotiated fishing opportunities for 2024 where Ices shall evaluate management measures to protect the salmon without disproportionately affecting small-scale coastal fishing 1 2 3. KD emphasizes that local coastal fishing must be protected and that compensation-reared salmon constitutes a large part of the catches 2. S argues that the salmon in Ljungan are in poor condition and that coastal fishers face an uncertain future 4. S wants to know which measures have been proposed and requests information about salmon as bycatch in large trawlers 4 5. S advocates for long-term research and knowledge regarding migration routes.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! Malin Larsson has asked me how the work on how salmon fishing will look in 2024 is progressing, what measures Sweden has proposed to protect the salmon stock in Ljungan, and what initiatives I am prepared to take in view of the situation for the salmon and for the coastal fishers who engage in salmon fishing.
In October, the Council of Ministers made a decision on fishing opportunities for the Baltic Sea during 2024. This includes, among other things, salmon. As part of the decision, the EU Commission shall commission a scientific basis from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES. This basis will form the foundation for what the salmon fishing will look like in the Bothnian Sea during 2024.
Based on the river-specific salmon management that has been implemented in Sweden, several different proposed measures exist with the aim of protecting the salmon stock in Ljungan. The proposed measures that have been discussed primarily concern limiting the scope of fishing in different ways, as well as the conduct of fishing in time and space.
This is an ongoing work aimed at analyzing the possibilities of introducing increased protection for the salmon stock in Ljungan while ensuring that the management does not disproportionately affect small-scale coastal fishing for salmon. I want to await the outcome of this process before I am ready to take other initiatives.
Malin Larsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by thanking the Minister for the answers.
Today we shall debate fishing for salmon. The fishing quotas regarding sprat and herring have long been in focus, and now the salmon shall also receive its fishing quotas in the Bothnian Sea.
So, what will the salmon fishing look like in the coming years? This was not decided at the agricultural and fisheries council that the Minister participated in on October 23-24, but now the commission, together with Sweden and Finland, shall work to ensure that a scientific assessment is made of the measures that the countries have proposed to protect the salmon stock in Ljungan.
Salmon, which is a valued fish for both fishing and consumption, has a distinct migratory behavior. It spawns in rivers and grows in the sea. It is very homing and returns not only to the same river but to the place in the river where it hatched. As a smolt, which is called laxyngel, it lives in our rivers and eats bottom-dwelling small animals, roe, and insects. After two to three years, it migrates out to the sea to grow. The food then shifts more and more to fish such as herring. After up to four years in the sea, the salmon then returns to its home river to spawn and reproduce.
That salmon has been important for us humans for millennia, we can see from rock carvings, among others in my home county of Västernorrland, which testify that salmon was an important food source throughout antiquity. I myself was not raised in antiquity but in the 80s in the village of Matfors, which is a mill town outside Sundsvall. The Ljungan flows through Matfors.
As a child, I was taught that Matfors got its name from the fact that there was so much salmon - so much food - in the rapids. As with other salmon-rich waters, there are stories from here about how maids and farmhands, through their employment contracts in the past, were exempted from eating salmon for a certain number of days per year.
Today, unfortunately, the situation is the opposite. Ljungan is the river that has the salmon stock that is weakest around our coast. The quota for how much salmon may be fished is determined by the EU and is based on the stock that is in the worst condition in the country. Right now, the salmon in Ljungan is in the worst condition.
We naturally want to be able to fish and eat salmon from Ljungan even in the future. The salmon is also incredibly important for our coastal fishers, who face a very uncertain future if they are not allowed to fish for salmon next year.
The burning question is whether our coastal fishers will be allowed to fish for salmon. They must be told this as soon as possible, and under what conditions they may fish if so. It is also about how we ensure that the salmon survives, that the salmon stocks increase, and that we can fish for salmon in Ljungan in the future.
The Minister accounted for the fact that there are several different proposed measures, but what are all these proposed measures?
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! The Government negotiated for cautiously set fishing opportunities, so that the fish stocks are given the opportunity to recover. Even though we could have imagined further reductions, we can state that there will be significant reductions in the fishing opportunities. We also get closures during certain periods for the purpose that fish stocks that today are not doing well enough should recover.
In addition to the areas that are closed this year with regard to the stock development of salmon in Ljungan, the EU Commission proposed a ban on salmon fishing even in the Baltic Sea. This proposal was voted through at the Council of Ministers meeting in October.
What the Commission's proposal did not take into account, however, were the specific management possibilities that exist along the Swedish coast. The Government has had a clear position throughout: Local coastal fishing shall be protected. This position also applies to salmon fishing.
We therefore succeeded, after rather tough negotiations, in achieving a breakthrough so that ICES shall evaluate the various management measures that Sweden and Finland have jointly discussed and which can enable continued salmon fishing in the Baltic Sea during 2024. The Commission has not yet commissioned this evaluation from ICES, and therefore we cannot state in detail which measures are included in the commission's order.
I can, however, assure the member that we will, of course, be eager and persistent to ensure that the commission does what the parties agreed upon in October.
Malin Larsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister again for the answers.
Several measures have been taken in Ljungan as well. For some years now, it has been forbidden to fish for salmon at all in Ljungan due to the poor status of the salmon stock. A large sanctuary area was also established off the coast of Sundsvall, where the Ljungan flows out.
The decline is due to a large number of salmon dying before spawning over a number of years. Why they died is not exactly known. What is completely crucial for the salmon's survival is that it can reproduce, and it does so in its birth river. Then the salmon must be able to survive its first years in the river and during its growth period out in the sea and then migrate back up into the river and be able to spawn and reproduce.
For this to work all the way through, it is essential that we have functioning ecosystems in our rivers. Here, the government has an opportunity to influence so that we get functioning migration routes for salmon and other fish in the lower part of Ljungan and past the hydroelectric power plants.
The County Administrative Board here in Västernorrland has had a collaborative project with SLU since last year, where they have a salmon trap in the Ljungan in the spring. I have personally accompanied them out to inspect the trap. They capture and tag smolts, which are then released into the river again. The trap covers approximately one-quarter of the river's width. They can calculate approximately how much salmon migrate out from the river to the sea to grow.
It is only the second year that one has this salmon trap and performs the estimation. The trend is positive, but this must continue for at least two more years in order to be able to ensure the trend that is seen today, which is highly uncertain.
In the declaration of Sweden and Finland at the Council of Ministers meeting, it states that Ljungan has had a larger number of spawning salmon in 2023. This is news for many. One might wonder where these figures come from. Do they come from the salmon trap? They migrate in and out, so it is not a matter of spawning salmon. The question is where these figures come from.
Madam Speaker! Had we also received a zero catch on herring and sill in the Baltic Sea for the large industrial trawlers, as we Social Democrats proposed, we would with great probability also have saved the salmon, both because the salmon would not have been caught as bycatch and because their most important food, the herring, could have increased in number. How many salmon are caught as bycatch in the large trawlers during the fishing of sprat, herring, and sill when they migrate out into the sea to grow would we not know. But many experts in the field whom I have spoken with believe that it concerns a large number of salmon. This is something we need to know. How does it look, and what do we do about it?
It is a very small proportion of the salmon that our coastal fishers catch, and furthermore, they get a very small proportion of wild salmon in their traps. This is known because the adipose fin is clipped off on the stocked salmon. Ices also writes that there are biological risks with stray stocked salmon, and therefore they recommend management measures. The coastal fishers minimize this risk through their fishing with salmon traps because they can select, and a large majority of the salmon they get is stocked.
What is the government's message to our coastal fishers, particularly in quota area 30? Will they be allowed to fish salmon? If they are not allowed to fish salmon, what is the government's view on their future? But also, how will the future of salmon be secured?
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! There are today wild salmon stocks in 16 Swedish rivers, which together with all other salmon stocks mix in the southern Baltic Sea. The management is based on the goal of maximum sustainable yield for each stock. We can see positive development trends where the phasing out of drift net fishing for salmon is considered the main explanation.
Since the rivers were developed with hydropower, farmed salmon is released as compensation. The farmed salmon has no genetic value and can negatively affect the wild salmon population if it migrates up and spawns, and therefore a targeted removal of this salmon is recommended. Just as the member said, it is easy to see which salmon is farmed because it has the adipose fin removed. It is precisely this compensation-farmed salmon that constitutes the majority of the catches in the Bay of Bothnia.
Large restoration projects in many rivers are also expected to have contributed to this development. For Ljungan, a large protected area exceeding 143 square kilometers in size has also been designated.
Fishing for salmon in the Bothnian Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia is a very important complement for the Swedish local, coastal fishing industry. It is against this very background that we urged the commission to let Ices look at whether the tools we have in Sweden can be adjusted so that the salmon stock in Ljungan receives increased protection while the coastal fishing can continue in limited quantities.
I would very much like to be able to say exactly when this is finished so that everyone can receive a notification, but since it is not in my hands right now, I can only promise that we are pushing as hard as we can so that we get a notification and so that the commission and Ices deliver on what we have decided.
Malin Larsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for an important interpellation debate.
As I began with, the salmon is an incredibly important resource for the local community but also an important contribution to a living countryside. At the same time, the salmon in Ljungan has not fared well for many years, and it will take several years before it recovers because the salmon needs its years at sea to grow before it returns to spawn and reproduce. Regardless of whether one fishes or not, it will take six or seven years before the salmon in Ljungan has recovered - if all goes well, that is. The salmon trap in Ljungan contributes to increased knowledge about how the salmon in the river is doing and how the stock recovers, but it requires several years of calculations to ensure the results.
Following the research in the long term is therefore incredibly important. We must have more knowledge. Where is the Ljungan salmon caught, and where could it be a problem with the large trawlers out at sea that get salmon as bycatch? Here, one can also take help from the coastal fishers as a measure. They can take genetic samples of the salmon so that we can see where the salmon they fish come from. When one follows the salmon from Ljungan, the researchers' calculations show that it migrates south in the Baltic Sea, and therefore salmon fishing north in area 30 should not be a problem. There are also alternatives with acoustic tags and the like, but it also requires that the fishers receive notice in time so that they have time to get the support they need.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! I believe that fishing and aquaculture activities should be environmentally sustainable in the long term and managed in a way that is consistent with the goals of achieving economic, social, and employment benefits. It is fundamentally about securing the food supply while simultaneously safeguarding the competitiveness of sustainable small-scale fishing.
Based on the river-specific salmon management being implemented in Sweden, it is assessed that there are many different management tools, and these tools should, as stated, be analyzed by Ices in order to best create a protection of the salmon stocks in Ljungan while ensuring that these measures do not disproportionately affect small-scale, coastal fishing.
This is an ongoing work that is expected to form the basis for how salmon fishing in the Baltic Sea will look during 2024. Let me, however, state once again that the Commission's original proposal, without taking into account our ongoing measures, was that we should close the fishing entirely.
With all this said, I must unfortunately state once again that I need to await this process and its outcome before I am prepared to take other initiatives.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.