Salmon in Subdivisions 22–31 (Main Basin and Gulf of Bothnia)

ICES advises on the basis of the MSY approach that total commercial sea catch in 2015 should not exceed 116 000  salmon.  Applying  the  same  proportions  estimated  to  have  occurred  in  2013,  this  catch  would  be  split  as  follows: 11% unwanted catch (previously referred to as discards) and 89% wanted catch (this 89% would, in turn, be split into 68% reported, 10% unreported, and 11% misreported). Setting a TAC under a discard ban needs to take account of wanted and unwanted catch. In setting the TAC, consideration should also be given to expected unreporting and misreporting levels in 2015.

ICES  advises  that  management  of  salmon  fisheries  should  be  based  on  the  status  of  individual  river  stocks.  Fisheries on mixed stocks that cannot target only river stocks with a healthy status, present particular threats to stocks that do not have a healthy status. Effort in such fisheries should be reduced. Fisheries in open sea areas or coastal waters are more likely to pose a threat to depleted stocks than fisheries in estuaries and rivers.

Salmon  stocks  in  the  rivers  Rickleån  and  Öreälven  in  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia,  Emån  in  southern  Sweden,  and  in  several rivers in the southeastern Main Basin are especially weak. These stocks need longer-term stock-specific rebuilding  measures,  including  fisheries  restrictions  in  estuaries  and  rivers,  habitat  restoration,  and  removal  of  physical barriers. In order to maximize the potential recovery of these stocks, further decreases in exploitation are required along their feeding and spawning migration routes at sea. The offshore fishery in the Main Basin catches all weak salmon stocks on their feeding migration. The coastal fishery catches weak stocks from northern rivers when the salmon pass the Åland Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia on their spawning migration.