Figure 1
The demise of the Western Baltic cod fishery and challenges to the governance system. (a) Catches divided into commercial and recreational fisheries landings as well as discards13. (b) Size of the German coastal gillnetter fleet. (c) Comparison of SSB from stock assessments in years 2008–2019; years indicate assessment years; red solid horizontal line indicates present biomass reference level MSY Btrigger; red dashed horizontal line indicates biomass reference level Blim indicating impaired reproductive success. (d) Comparison of fishing mortality estimates (F) from stock assessments in years 2008–2019; years indicate assessment years; red solid horizontal line indicates present F management target FMSY; grey shaded area represents F management range; red dashed horizontal line indicates former precautionary F reference level Fpa. (e) Deviations of realized spawning stock biomass (SSB) from predictions two years before. (f) Total allowable catches (TAC) agreed by the EU council of minister. (g) Governance system performance evaluated by comparing TAC and advice. (h) Governance system performance evaluated by comparing TAC and realized landings by the fishery. Data in (a), (f), (g) and (h) from13; data in c derived from the German Federal Office of Agriculture and Food (BLE), www.ble.de; for data in (c), (d), and (e) see Supplementary Methods S1.
