The National Marine Fisheries Research Institute was responsible this year for organizing the meeting of the Assessment Working Group on Baltic Salmon and Trout, acting within the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES WGBAST). The proceedings were held on 27.03–04.04.2017 and attended by 25 representatives of all Baltic countries, present on the spot or online via SKYPE. The observer from the European Commission also participated in the meeting. For the first time Stefan Palm from Sweden presided over the session. Katarzyna Nadolna-Ałtyn and Adam Lejk (NMFRI) were responsible for organizing the meeting. After presenting all National Reports, discussions and work on the preparation of the final report began, taking into account the data presented by all countries. Among others, the following issues were raised: changes in the structure of salmon catches in the Baltic Sea, i.e. the decline in the importance of sea catches in favor of the growth of coastal and river catches; ways of modeling the stocks of salmonids; the growing importance of recreational catches or scale of losses caused by seals in fisheries. The next meeting will be held in Finland next year.
