Trends in coastal fish stocks of the Baltic Sea

Coastal fish monitoring with multi-mesh gill nets and gill net series is carried out in eleven areas around the Baltic Sea. The purpose of the monitoring is to reveal population status and elucidate long-term trends of fish population and community development. Time series cover 9–20 years of annual monitoring, the last year being 2002. Significant increasing trends of perch and roach catches were observed in the archipelago region of the Sea of Åland and Archipelago Sea. A possible reason for these trends was ongoing coastal eutrophication. Significant trends with opposite directions appeared in two areas in the Gulf of Bothnia and two areas at the Swedish coast of the Baltic Proper. The Curonian Lagoon is severely affected by anthropogenic impact, structuring the local fish community. Indications of decreased eutrophication were noted in the Gulf of Riga. High fishing pressure during the 1990s in the West-Estonian archipelago and the following collapse of coastal fish stocks was apparent in the monitoring catches.