Fisherman Bengt wants to see radical change: “What we can make money on is forbidden”
The cod stock has become leaner, the eel is a thing of the past and the herring quotas make it difficult for fishermen in Öresund to make ends meet.
– If there is no radical change in the conditions, there will be no professional fishermen left in five years, says Bengt Grip, fisherman in Klagshamn outside Malmö.
Trawl fishing has been prohibited in the Öresund since the 1930s – and for a few years it looked as if the cod stock in the Öresund was healthy. But something has happened and, as a result, times are hard for professional fishermen. Today, you are only allowed to bring in occasional cod as bycatch, that is, if it happens to get caught in the nets of the Scanian fishermen.
– Today it is impossible. Fishing has always been up and down, then you could move down into the Baltic Sea or up north in certain periods. But now that the fish we can make money from is banned, there is nowhere to move to, says Bengt Grip.
He runs a small restaurant that serves part of the day’s catch in Klagshamn outside Malmö. Without it, the economy of being a fisherman would not have worked. And he is not the only fisherman to have a hard time, in Skåne today there are only 13 professional fishermen who turn over 100,000 kroner a year according to the county board in Skåne. This is before all possible expenses are paid.
Environmental aspects worsen
And the stocks of, for example, cod and herring, the County Administrative Board in Skåne believes are far from healthy.
– Firstly, there has been heavy fishing for eel, cod and herring. Even if there has been a fishing stop for cod, it will not come back, says Johan Wagnström, fisheries director at the county board in Skåne.
Want to see small-scale fishing
Bengt Grip himself sees an opportunity in going back to small-scale fishing when it comes to herring. Without large trawlers that have a capacity of 2000-3000 herring, more fishermen would have been able to share the stock and the quota that exists.
– If we look at the herring, which is the fish that could save the entire Baltic Sea coast, from Haparanda to Kullen, then we will probably have to stop industrial fishing. All the thousands of tons picked up from it had been enough for hundreds of small boats on the coast.
TV4 Nyheterna has searched for Agriculture Minister Per Kullgren without success.