Germany Eastern Baltic cod

MSC status

Certified as sustainable in August 2011.

Summary

Species: European cod (Gadus morhua)
Location: ICES areas 25 – 32 (Eastern Baltic Sea).
Fishing methods: Seine nets, Demersal otter trawl
Vessels: 52
Number of fisheries: 1

More about cod

Cod are distributed widely throughout European waters, there are a number of separate and isolated populations that form local stocks. Spawning and recruitment success of cod in the eastern Baltic Sea depend at great extent of environmental conditions. Spawning is confined to deep areas where salinities are sufficiently high to allow egg fertilisation and to keep fertilised eggs float and sufficient oxygen content in deep saline water layer is crucial to egg survival.

Adult stages of cod feed mostly on sprat and herring and juvenile cod suffer also from cannibalism. The extent of cannibalism might differ depending on predator abundance and juvenile concentration, which depend upon the habitat volume occupied and the overall abundance of cod.

The demersal or bottom otter trawl is a towed fishing gear designed and rigged to have bottom contact during fishing, towed by large trawl vessels, typically in excess of 15m. A demersal trawl is a cone-shaped net consisting of a body, closed by a codend and with lateral wings extending forward from the opening. The two towing warps lead from the vessel to the otter boards which act as paravanes to maintain the horizontal net opening. These boards typically weigh between 0.5–1 t and drag across the seabed.

Fly shooting, also known as Scottish seine or fly dragging is considered to be a cross between traditional Danish seining and otter trawling (as described above). Fly shooting is a ground fishing method for demersal fish where there the warps and net (conical net with two long wings and no otter boards) are laid out from a large dhan buoy (which is not anchored as per Danish seine).

Fishery tonnage

The 2008 landings for the Germany Eastern Baltic cod fishery was 1,396 mt

Commercial market

The fleet under assessment lands cod to German ports on the Baltic coast, principally at Sassnitz and Mukran. The fish are processed here for onward transport to domestic and export markets

Actual eligibility date

4th February 2011