The visit to the Norrsund is taking place ahead of upcoming negotiations on, among other things, the streaming quota in the Bothnian Sea. For several years, local coastal fishermen along the Norrland coast have raised the alarm about terrible sturgeon catches and the sour sturgeon industry has not received sufficient amounts of raw material.
Thousands of tons are fished every year
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) came out on Monday with a recommendation for the amount of sturgeon they think should be allowed to fish in the Bothnian Sea.
While the EU Commission wants the figure to stay at zero, ICES recommends that up to 65-75 thousand tonnes of sturgeon be taken out of the sea – which is more than last year.
They are singled out as the culprit
The industrial trawlers that fish so-called forage fish for fishmeal production and often unload their catch in the Norrsundet have been pointed out by fishermen as well as local authorities and researchers as a decisive factor for the decline of the stream.