Does Swedish consumption of farmed salmon drive increase in industrial fisheries in the Baltic Sea?

Swedish fishing in the Baltic Sea with large vessels to produce fish meal and oil, and the deteriorating conditions for small-scale fishing and herring stocks, has in recent years been heavily debated in media. A link between current large-scale fishing and Swedish consumption of Norwegian salmon is often made, i.e., that Norwegian salmon farming is a driver behind the recent development. The Swedish Fishing Industry Association has therefore commissioned this report with the aim to improve current knowledge. The overarching questions are whether i) there is a dependency, and ii) if Norwegian salmon farming can be considered a driver for Swedish large-scale fishing of herring in the Baltic Sea. It is found that the development from the 1950s needs to be taken into account to fully understand today's situation. The current Swedish fishing fleet in the Baltic Sea is in line with national fisheries’ objectives to make pelagic fishing more efficient, and the development of stocks is in turn governed by the EU Common Fisheries Policy – both independent to both Swedish consumption and Norwegian salmon farming. Several factors affect destination of landings, where an important aspect is quality of the catch. Current fishing pattern, with fewer and larger boats, have resulted in considerably larger landing volumes per vessel – compromising opportunities for processing for direct consumption. The exact link between Swedish fisheries and Norwegian salmon farming is however complicated. The different traceability systems for fish caught for feed versus direct consumption are not integrated, although detailed information "one step forward, one step back" is available from individual actors. This challenge an effective tracing of a certain fish volume caught for fish meal and oil production to the final use. Overall, available data find that the total share of herring (from all waters) in one kilo Norwegian salmon feed is small (3.77%), and a very small fraction is based on fisheries directly destined for fish meal and oil production (0.8%) – the largest share is based on trimmings from processing for direct consumption. However, most of the Swedish landings of herring from the Baltic Sea is directly destined for fishmeal and oil production in Denmark. The largest share of the total production in Denmark goes to aquaculture, mainly to Norway. Conclusions are that i) Norwegian salmon farming does not appear to use herring from the Baltic Sea to a large extent, although a large share of the fish meal and oil production from the Baltic Sea are destined to aquaculture, and ii) it is the fisheries management (EU and Swedish) that has shaped the fishing that exists today by creating the basic conditions. The report concludes with recommendations for follow-up measures to reduce conflict between fishing for feed and direct consumption, and to better ensure full traceability even for fish intended for feed production.