Swedish Small-Scale Fisheries in the Baltic Sea: Decline, Diversity and Development

Abstract

Can Swedish small-scale fisheries escape decline and live up to their attributed potential to make fisheries more sustainable? Here we address this question by highlighting diversity within these fisheries. Through a specific focus on the Baltic Sea, we demonstrate that small-scale fisheries, defined by scale of operation, are neither sustainable nor unsustainable and have different social and ecological impacts. Based on our analysis we discuss general opportunities and challenges for future development of Swedish small-scale fisheries. Opportunities exist in connection to the creation of niche-products and branding fish as a local and/or exclusive commodity, while major challenges are linked to complexity and extensiveness of regulations, lack of recruitment of new fishers, and ecological sustainability of fishing practices. We argue that attention to diversity in Swedish small-scale fisheries has to be the starting point for meeting future challenges and fulfilling their attributed potential as a sustainable primary production sector.