Samspelet mellan ekologi, produktionsförhållande, politik och sociokulturella faktorer gällande Östersjöns torskbestånd från 1970-talet till 2003
Interdisciplinary studiesBaltic SeaCodInteraction between fishery politicEcologySocial values and state of production. European Union and the Common Fishery PoliticCFPTotal Allowable CatchTACFishery fleetVesselsVessels Monitoring SystemTVÄRVETENSKAP
The study begins with a historical background over the fisheries development in North America and in the Baltic Sea area in Finland and Sweden. As we can see the fisheries development depends on the interaction between ecology, state of production, politic and also social factors. In Sweden the fishery politic has changed over the period of the study. In the 1970: s the main politic focus was on the fisheries progress, expansion and rationalization. The State in Sweden took a vast part in this development and gave economic support. In the 1980: s the fishery politic in Sweden started to change and the environmental politics began to enter the fishery politic. The environmental problems in the Baltic Sea were given attention and it was a great anxiety over the eutrophication. In the 1980: s the codpopulation declined and with them the catches declined. The conflict over the White zone 1978-1988 between Former Soviet Union and Sweden resulted in a plunder fishery in the area east of Bornholm. This plunder fishery effected the cod population enormous and the effect has continued to the late 1990: s. In 1995 Sweden joined the European Union and the common fishery politic replaced the Swedish fishery politic. The system with TAC (Total Allowable Catch) is central in the common politic and it is used to control the cod catches. But the problem is that the TAC -volume has been higher than the codpopulation could stand. Despite the politic goal in Sweden and EU to preserve the codpopulation in the Baltic Sea, the codpopulation has continued to decline. The reason to this politic failure is that the limit of the ecology has been overseen. Instead, the economic and social values have been dominating the politic and together with a to weak control of the catches and environmental problems in the Baltic Sea, the situation for the cod has been devastating.