More hands in the water to give researchers better insight into Baltic Sea fish

The new method involves engaging external participants – fishers, county administrative boards, private individuals, and fisheries management associations – to carry out simpler, standardized test fishing along the entire Swedish Baltic coast. So far, ten participants have been contracted, from Kalix in the north to Blekinge in the south.

– The aim is to investigate the possibilities and limitations of this method for collecting valuable data that we currently lack, says Stefan Larsson, senior environmental assessment specialist at the Department of Aquatic Resources at SLU, and leader of the project.

– By involving more participants, we hope to gain a much better understanding of how coastal fish stocks are developing, says Jens Olsson, researcher at the Department of Aquatic Resources at SLU and initiator of the project.

The participants have already carried out one test fishing in August and will conduct another in October. In 2026, three additional test fishings are planned – in April, August, and October. 

Join a test fishing survey with nets in the Stockholm archipelago

One of the external collaborators is Tobias Fränstam, a sport fishing profile and private individual active in the southern Stockholm archipelago. Tobias recently shared his experiences from the project on his YouTube channel. In the video (in Swedish only), he demonstrates how the test fishing is carried out in practice, with a focus on methods, equipment, and the species caught. He also shows how to easily tell the different fish species apart, such as white bream, roach, bream, and bleak.

The project is funded by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund via the Swedish Board of Agriculture.