Indikatorrapportering för “Hållbart nyttjande av fisk- och skaldjursbestånd i kust och hav”: bedömningsåret 2025

The Department of Aquatic Resources (SLU Aqua) has, on behalf of the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, developed an indicator, Sustainable use of fish- and shellfish stocks along the coast and in the sea, to be used in the assessment of the Swedish environmental quality goal "A Balanced Marine Environment, Flourishing Coastal Areas and Archipelagos". The indicator targets the overall status of Swedish fish- and shellfish stocks along the coasts and in the sea. The indicator is based on the annual analyses of the individual status of fish stocks in Fiskbarometern (SLU Fiskbarometern 2026, in Swedish), and measure whether the stocks are fished sustainably or not. Assessments for the indicator, including this report, have been carried out between the years 2015-2024. This report presents an assessment of the status of the indicator for the year 2025, including data until 2024. The method for the assessments of nationally managed fish and shellfish stocks was updated in 2022, which has resulted in that the time series of the proportion of sustainably fished stocks is no longer fully comparable across all years in the series. However, in a comparison in the 2022 indicator report between the older and the updated assessment method, differences in the indicator were generally small. In the present report, the indicator is based on the new method and thus only includes results for the assessment years 2022-2025. Of the 76 reported stocks in Fiskbarometern, an assessment could be made for 67 stocks. Of these, 31 (40.8%) were classified as "sustainable use" which is slightly lower than reported in 2024 when the proportion was 41.5% (32 out of 77 stocks). The status of the indicator was highest in the Bothnian Bay with 50.0% of the reported stocks classified as "sustainable use", followed by the North Sea (including Kattegat and Skagerrak) (40.0%), the Baltic Sea (25.0%) and the Bothnian Sea (12.5%). The corresponding percentages for the assessment year 2024 for the the Bothnian Bay, North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Bothnian Sea were 40.0%, 46.7%, 25.0% and 7.1%, respectively. Overall, across all assessment units there has been only a marginal change in the status of the indicator for 2025 compared to 2024. Three stocks have gone from “sustainable use” to “unsustainable use” (lemon sole Microstomus kitt in the North Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat, sandeel Ammodytes marinus in the North Sea and Skagerrak: ICES catch area 3r, and Norway pout Trisopterus esmarkii in the North Sea). Two stocks have gone from “unsustainable use” to “sustainable use” (bream Abramis brama in the Sea of Åland and sprat Sprattus sprattus in the North Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat). In addition, one stock of perch has been added (Sea of Åland), which has been assessed as “sustainable use”. A higher proportion of stocks with so-called analytical stock assessment (the MSY concept) gives a higher reliability in the overall assessment of the stocks reported in the indicator. Overall, for all four assessment units in 2025, the proportion of stocks with analytical stock assessment was 27.6% (21 out of 76 stocks). Reliability was highest in the North Sea, where the proportion of stocks assessed according to the MSY concept is 37.8%, followed by the Baltic Sea (25.0%), the Bothnian Sea (14.3%) and the Bothnian Bay (10.0%). The proportion of the total official Swedish commercial landings of fish and shellfish covered by the indicator is over 99%.