Meeting of the Working Group of Baltic Salmon and Trout

During the 10-day meeting participants visited the aquaculture research facility in Born, which is run by the Federal Research Institute of Mecklenburg Western Pomerania. This facility is among others producing sea trout fry for the restocking program in M-V. Further the group visited the video-optical counting facility for migrating sea trout from the ‘Verein Fisch und Umwelt Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’ and performed a habitat scoring of a local sea trout spawning river.  

Although the smolt abundance in many spawning rivers has increased and will reach the anticipated 75% oft the potential smolt production (PSPC), individual salmon stocks, particularly in the Gulf of Finland are still under their reproductive capacity. According to the precautionary approach the scientific advice will therefore follow last years advice with a slight reduction in the total allowable catch (TAC). For the first time an assessment of Baltic sea trout was initiated. For both stocks – Baltic salmon and sea trout – recreational removals play a significant role.