| The recreational fishing market in Sweden is more than 10 times greater than the commercial fishing market, a new report has revealed.
Fiskeriverket, the Swedish Fisheries Board, values the socio-economic value of sport fishing in the country at around 1 billion kroner (106m euros). But commercial fishing is responsible for just 75m kroner (8m euros). The report further reinforces the Swedish government’s ambition to dramatically reduce commercial fishing quotas for the long-term benefit of recreational angling – especially tourism. ‘Fritidsfiske och fritidsfiskebaserad verksamhet’ (‘Recreational Fishing and Recreational Fishing Dependant Business’) says fishing tourism in Sweden has a growth potential, but only if more fish stocks are protected against commercial trawling. Sweden has around 1 million recreational anglers – 776,000 using handheld gear only. The country supports around 1,300 sportfishing-related businesses, many of which are small-scale businesses operating in rural areas. This compares to just 1,000 commercial fishermen. With these statistics in mind, Fiskeriverket wants to redirect parts of the catch quota to recreational fishermen, a strategy which is supported by one of the report’s authors, Anton Paulrud. Mr Paulrud believes recreational fishing poses no threat to fish stocks and said: “It is possible for the politicians to direct the quotas to another part of the business. Even if we are part of the common fisheries policy within the EU, which allocates quotas to Sweden, this doesn’t mean that this entire quota has to be caught. “Recreational fishing is a relatively sustainable kind of fishing, and on top of that it has other values – in that it increases both knowledge about, and engagement with, nature.” One of the main sources of information for the report was an extensive questionnaire sent to the country’s recreational fishing businesses. The results show that these businesses are optimistic about the future. The demand for their services is said to be big but there are obstacles which deprive the sector from expanding. One of the most obvious is lack of fish. Here, the figures from the report are gloomy for almost all important food fish. In  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission, which supports our community.
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