This article was featured in Eurofish Magazine 4 2026.
A cold winter is fuelling cautious optimism for herring stocks in the western Baltic Sea. This year’s Rügen herring larval survey, now in its 35th year, currently shows high spawning activity but very few larvae so far. Unlike the mild winters of the past decade, this year the Greifswald Bodden stayed frozen for weeks, with water temperatures below four degrees Celsius until late March. This presented conditions resembling those of 30 years ago, raising hopes of a strong year class and faster stock recovery after years of reduced productivity linked to warmer winters. The survey began on 1 April, with researchers sampling 36 stations weekly over 16 weeks using bongo nets, counting herring larvae to calculate a recruitment index that feeds into ICES stock assessments.
