On Monday, the EU Council of Ministers voted to increase the herring quota in the central Baltic Sea by 71 per cent. Sweden was the only Member State to call for the lowest possible quotas. This has broad political support at home – but not in Luxembourg.
The EU’s new catch quotas for herring in the Baltic Sea are being significantly increased. “It would have been safer for the ecosystem to have waited a couple of years before implementing such a large increase,” says Baltic Sea researcher Sara Söderström.
Herring fishing is set to increase in the Baltic Sea, despite opposition from Sweden. The government nevertheless considers next year’s quotas to be acceptable and relatively low. ‘Ridiculous,’ says the opposition.
When the EU’s fisheries ministers meet to negotiate next year’s catch quotas at the end of October, Sweden will be taking a cautious line, whilst Finland wants to push for higher catches. Two countries that could be working together to ensure long-term sustainability in the ocean are instead standing on opposite shores, pulling in different directions. How did it come to this?
Just over four years have passed since the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines off Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The trial has now begun in Hamburg.
One of the world’s lowest salinity marine waters, the Gulf of Bothnia, faces major challenges with an increased risk of algal blooms. The reason is that phosphorus levels in the shallow inland sea are rising. This means that the delicate balance between phosphorus and nitrogen is being disrupted, which in turn affects which organisms thrive in the sea. The new study, led by researchers at Umeå University, shows that a fundamental change in the marine environment is about to take place.
Around 50 US marines are being deployed to the Baltic Sea to assist Finland in monitoring and protecting, amongst other things, undersea cables.
The Finnish Government is proposing that the Border Guard be granted extended powers to prevent damage to submarine cables.
On 13 September, Sweden will hold a general election. During Almedalen Week in June 2026, Deep Sea Reporter put some key ocean and water-related questions to representatives of Sweden’s parliamentary parties. See their answers in the report.
Seals, sea lions and walruses have unique hearing abilities – they are the only mammals that can hear well both in water and in air. How this works has been clarified in a study that also reveals when this ability first emerged. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, was carried out by […]
His writing stems from a deep love for cod and the sea, and a fierce anger at a political system that has favoured a select few at the expense of the public good.
Herring stocks in the Baltic Sea have long been on the brink of collapse, but according to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the stocks now appear to be increasing. ICES therefore believes that quotas can be increased – by up to 122 per cent
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has presented its new recommendations for fishing in the Baltic Sea next year, which include significantly increased quotas for herring and sprat in the Baltic Sea.
The European Parliament is pushing to ban industrial trawlers in the Baltic Sea. “A strong message,” says Isabella Lövin (the Swedish Green Party) following a vote in Strasbourg.
This year’s live broadcast tracking the breeding of the common murres at Stora Karlsö in the Baltic sea has now begun. New for this year is the option to listen to the seabirds as well. “It feels like we’ve only scratched the surface of the common murres’ soundscape,” according to a press release.
En ny kräftart med ursprung i Stilla havet har hittats utanför Husum i Örnsköldsviks kommun. Fyndet är det första i Sverige. Än så länge saknar den ett svenskt namn, men det latinska är Nippoleucon hinumensis.
According to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the goal for the gray seal population is for their impact on human interests to be positive or neutral. But how do seals actually affect our environment? And how are the gray seals in the Baltic Sea doing? We joined researchers from SLU and the Swedish Museum of Natural History to assess the seals’ health.
When this year’s seal hunt begins on Monday, 1,350 gray seals, 200 harbor seals, and 200 ringed seals may be hunted. That is more than last year, and the increased quota has outraged the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, which believes the seal population is at risk in the long term.
In February 2026, historically low water levels were recorded in the Baltic Sea, in some places, the lowest in almost 100 years. This was mainly due to a stable high-pressure system and strong easterly winds over Scandinavia, which pushed water out of the Baltic Sea. There was hope that fresh, oxygen-rich and salty water would flow in from the North Sea to the heavily tested inland sea and its oxygen-depleted seabed – but that did not happen. Find out why in the news report.
Two vessels suspected of belonging to the Russian shadow fleet remain off the coast of Trelleborg. In March 2026, the Swedish authorities boarded the vessels, which are believed to be transporting Russian oil under a false flag. Russia regards this type of action as piracy.
The Russian shadow fleet is a hot topic as the ten countries in the UK-led defence partnership JEF meet in Helsinki. ‘The shadow fleet must be tackled more rigorously,’ says British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as the meeting begins.
Keep Sweden Tidy has been working with various partners in Finland and Estonia to remove abandoned fishing gear from the Baltic Sea. At the same time, it has been raising awareness of the problem of ghost nets, amongst other things, among recreational anglers and the general public. Over the three years the project has been running, nearly 9,000 metres of ghost nets and over two tonnes of lost fishing gear have been retrieved from the sea.
It may be some time before the two vessels, which are suspected of being part of the Russian shadow fleet, are able to leave Swedish waters. ‘It will probably not happen quickly,’ says Mattias Lindholm, press officer at the Swedish Coast Guard.
The search for sites in Sweden where carbon dioxide can be stored beneath the seabed has been underway for three years. Two potential sites have now been identified. ‘We've received some excellent samples and the results so far are very promising,’ says Sofie Lindström of the Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU).
