Experts believe that politics have helped a lot to boost the cod stock in the Baltic Sea, but environmental conditions are equally important. Only the synergies from these two factors have resulted in a stock increase that exceeds the sums of both factors. These are the preliminary results from an ongoing analysis at Stockholm University (Department of Systems Ecology, Baltic Nest Institute at Stockholm Resilience Centre).
It is said that the study is highly relevant for the management decision on Baltic cod, which will be taken by the Council of Ministers on 27th October 2008. Scientists at the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) expressed that the eastern Baltic cod stock has increased since 2005 and is now higher than ever during the last decade. Researchers at Stockholm University analysed whether this increase is a result of management actions reducing the fishing pressure or improved environmental conditions resulting in higher reproduction.
The research analysis clearly illustrates the importance of management actions but it also underlines the non-linear dynamics in nature and the challenges involved in ecosystem management. Henrik Oesterblom at Baltic Nest Institute and one of the authors behind the study, told that a similar increase of the cod stock in the early 1990’s was rapidly nullified by unsustainable catches.
Oesterblom opined that it is right time to re-build the cod stock. If only the management plan decided last year is followed and illegal catches are controlled, the future of the Baltic cod looks better than it has for a long time, says Olle Hjerne, marine ecologist at Stockholm University.
