10 PLAICE, TURBOT, DAB, AND BRILL IN THE BALTIC The nominal landings of plaice, turbot, dab, and brill are given by Subdivisions and countries in Tables 10.1–10.4. The development of total landings by species in Subdivisions 22-32 is presented in Figure 10.1. The total landings of plaice decreased from around 8300 t to 1300 t in 1979-1998 and increased to 2728 t in 2000. In 2001 the landings decreased again to 2514 t. In general the landings show a downward trend in this period, with some fluctuations between the years with the lowest landing on record in 1993 (269 t) and an increase from 1995 onwards to about 2728 t in 2000. This fluctuation is supposed to be caused by immigration of plaice from the Kattegat into the western Baltic Sea. The Subdivision 22 was the main fishing area where the landings of Denmark increased from 642 t in 1998 to 1932 t in 2000 and decreased again to 1627 t in 2001. The Danish landings of 2000 have been the highest recorded since 1980. The landings of Poland in Subdivision 25(+24) amounted 549 t in 2001, an increase of 141 t (about 35%) in comparison with the year 2000. The Polish landings in 2001 were the highest in the last 20 years. The German and Swedish landings of plaice in 2001 amounted to 101 t and 61 t, respectively. Turbot is mainly distributed in the western and central Baltic Sea. Therefore about 80-90% of the landings were reported from the Subdivisions 22-26. The total landings of turbot increased from around 100 t to 1210 t in 1960-1996. Afterwards the landings decreased to a level of 446 t in 2001, which means a 63% decrease in comparison with 1996. A successful turbot gillnet fishery started at the beginning of the 1990s. This development is remarkable for the fact that especially in the last years the Russian fishery showed more interest in the turbot gillnet fishery and therefore increased the landings of this species in 1998 (96 t) in comparison to the period 1992-1997 (about 20-30 t). It is important to mention that after 1990 turbot was sorted out from the flatfish catches due to the better prices, in particular in all eastern countries. German total landings (SD 22 and 24) decreased in 2001 in comparison with 2000 (about 35%) and the landings are the lowest since 1991. After the highest level of catches achieved in 1995 a decreasing trend in catches is observed. In the recent years there have been poor year classes entering the fishery. This could be a sign of the turbot stock decrease. The majority of the dab catches were taken from Subdivision 22 (about 90%). The total landings decreased from 1071 t to 861 t in 1999-2001. The decreasing trend of the total landings has been observed since 1988, although in 1994–1996 the total landings reached 2,760 t on average. It can be concluded that in 1994-1996 the total landings of dab were overestimated due to the by-catch misreporting in cod fishery. Since 1997 the total landings of dab have been again at the level of the seventies (960 t, 1071 t, 876 t and 861 t in 1998-2001 respectively). The main dab landings are reported by Denmark (about 76% in 2001). The German landings are by-catches in the directed cod fishery. The brill fishery was carried out mainly by Denmark (about 90-100% in the period 1985-2001). At the beginning of the 1980s the landings shifted from SD 22 to SD 24-28 (in 1982-1983 more than 50% of the total catches). Since the middle of the 1980s the majority of the brill was taken from Subdivision 22. The total landings in 1985-1995 increased from 15 t to 160 t and in the period 1997-2001 decreased on an average to about 24 t with a fluctuation between 19 t and 28 t. As it is already described for the dab fishery, it is to be concluded that the reported total landings of brill especially in 1994-1996 are overestimated, due to the misreporting of species in the landings of the directed cod fishery. O:\ACFM\WGREPS\WGBFAS\REPORTS\2002\Sec10.Doc 277 Table 10.1 Total landings (tonnes) of PLAICE in the Baltic by sub-division and country. (There are some gaps in the information. Therfore "Total" is preliminary.) Year Denmark Germ.Dem. R.1 Germany, Fed. Rep. Poland Sweden2 22 23 24(25) 22 24 22 24(+25) 26 28 25(+24) 26 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 1970 3,757 494 202 16 149 1971 3,435 314 160 2 107 1972 2,726 290 154 2 78 1973 2,399 203 2 44 163 1 174 30 75 1974 3,440 126 36 10 166 2 114 86 60 1975 2,814 184 11 67 302 1 158 142 45 1976 3,328 178 11 82 302 3 164 76 44 1977 3,452 221 5 36 348 2 265 26 41 1978 3,848 681 33 1,198 346 3 633 290 32 1979 3,554 2,027 10 1,604 195 7 555 224 113 1980 2,216 1,652 5 303 84 5 383 53 113 1981 1,193 937 6 52 74 31 239 27 118 1982 716 393 6 25 39 6 43 64 40 6 7 1 1983 901 297 5 12 37 14 64 12 133 20 24 2 1984 803 166 7 2 23 8 106 23 3 4 1 1985 648 771 68 593 26 40 119 49 25 4 5 1 1986 570 1,019 34 372 25 7 171 59 48 7 9 1 1987 414 794 4 142 14 16 188 5 68 10 12 1 1988 234 323 3 16 7 1 9 1 49 7 9 1 1989 167 149 5 7 10 34 5 6 1 1990 236 100 1 9 1 6 50 1991 328 112 15 9 2 1 5 2 2 1992 316 74 11 4 6 3 1 1 1993 171 66 16 6 4 2 4 1994 355 159 1 43 4 6 4 7 1995 601 64 343 75 91 1 233 2 12 13 10 1 1996 859 81 263 43 77 183 5 1 13 28 23 10 1 1997 902 201 51 56 308 3 13 7 8 1 1998 642 278 213 41 101 14 13 6 17 1 1999 1,456 183 244 46 145 1 1 13 5 10 2000 1932 161 140 37 408 3 26 9 12 20014 1627 173 58 43 549 3 39 9 13 continued 278 O:\ACFM\WGREPS\WGBFAS\REPORTS\2002\sec10.doc Table 10.1 continued Year Total Total 22 23 243 25 26 27 28 29 22-29 1970 3,959 659 4,618 1971 3,595 423 4,018 1972 2,880 370 3,250 1973 2,564 323 174 30 3,091 1974 3,642 198 114 86 4,040 1975 3,127 297 158 142 3,724 1976 3,641 307 164 76 4,188 1977 3,805 300 265 26 4,396 1978 4,227 1,914 633 290 7,064 1979 3,759 3,751 555 224 8,289 1980 2,305 2,073 383 53 4,814 1981 1,273 1,138 239 27 2,677 1982 761 464 49 64 7 1 1,346 1983 943 456 84 12 24 2 1,521 1984 833 199 109 4 1 1,146 1985 742 1,429 123 49 5 1 2,349 1986 629 1,446 178 59 9 1 2,322 1987 432 1,020 198 5 12 1 1,668 1988 244 389 16 1 9 1 660 1989 174 188 15 6 1 384 1990 245 152 6 403 1991 343 126 4 1 2 476 1992 327 81 7 1 416 1993 187 2 76 4 269 1994 356 6 163 50 4 579 1995 676 76 447 243 3 1 1,446 1996 903 94 368 206 15 1 1,587 1997 953 13 264 316 3 1 1,550 1998 855 13 325 118 14 1 1,326 1999 1,701 13 234 155 1 2,104 2000 2,072 26 207 420 3 2,728 2001 4 1,685 39 225 562 3 2,514 1 From October-December 1990 landings of Germany, Fed. Rep. are included. 2 For the years 1970-1981 and 1990 the catches of Sub-divisions 25-28 are included in Sub-division 24. 3 For the years 1970-1981 and 1990 the Swedish catches of Sub-divisions 25-28 are included in Sub-division 24. O:\ACFM\WGREPS\WGBFAS\REPORTS\2002\Sec10.Doc 279 280 O:\ACFM\WGREPS\WGBFAS\REPORTS\2002\sec10.doc Table 10.2 continued Year Total Total 22 23 243 25 26 27 28(+29) 22-28(+29) 1965 3 39 42 1966 21 74 95 1967 21 30 51 1968 17 85 102 1969 17 70 87 1970 16 55 71 1971 15 114 129 1972 13 129 142 1973 14 68 58 13 153 1974 16 69 34 36 155 1975 45 93 23 6 167 1976 40 83 14 12 149 1977 41 100 12 55 208 1978 44 74 7 3 128 1979 32 89 29 34 184 1980 37 83 12 20 152 1981 37 115 10 19 181 1982 39 81 6 17 4 3 150 1983 44 80 46 4 35 24 233 1984 57 56 17 2 3 2 137 1985 76 60 72 15 4 3 230 1986 130 119 40 37 7 5 338 1987 168 135 166 21 9 6 505 1988 154 157 23 10 14 9 367 1989 162 142 15 11 13 9 352 1990 208 197 24 25 454 1991 272 178 85 20 16 571 1992 322 207 92 85 21 36 763 1993 233 31 212 534 106 13 38 1,167 1 From October-December 1990 landings of Germany, Fed.