Lobster fishing threatened

In 2023, relatively many lobsters were caught in the Swedish and Norwegian waters, but this was not because the number of lobsters has increased, on the contrary.

– Despite the efforts, the status has not improved significantly. Lobsters are still too few and the stock is overfished, says Andreas Sundelöf, researcher at the Department of Aquatic Resources at SLU.

The condition of the lobster in our waters is certainly below a sustainable level, according to this year’s calculations from the Swedish University of Agriculture (SLU), which are published on fiskbarometern.se.

The fact that the lobster fishermen still got good catches of lobsters last year is probably due to temperatures and winds that make the lobsters more mobile and easier to catch.

The restrictions on lobster fishing that have been imposed on several occasions do not seem to have helped the stock to recover. Adreas Sundelöf at SLU believes that lobster fishing must be restricted even more to help the lobster survive.

– From areas that are completely protected from fishing, it is clear that strong restrictions on fishing have a quick and strong positive effect on the stock status of lobsters. It has been shown many times in both Swedish and Norwegian Skagerrak. The regulations to limit the catch of lobster should be reviewed as soon as possible so that fishing can be limited enough for the lobster stock to recover, says Andreas Sundelöf.