Integrating the Common Fisheries Policy and the Marine Strategy for the Baltic

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires the achievement of Good Environmental Status (GES) by 2020 and the adoption of the Ecosystem Approach. The former sectoral approach to management must be transformed to adhere to the requirements of the new directive. Fishery is a particularly important example, because it relies heavily on the ecosystem, sustains many coastal communities and still has large economic impacts at national level. The article examines the cod fishery in the Eastern Baltic and the feasibility of integrating the intermediate and final ecosystem services and benefits associated with the fishery into the ‘programmes of measures’. Decision Space Analysis is used to visualize the spatial challenges concerning competing priorities and expectations for uses of the marine area, as well as the temporal challenges of achieving GES under the very short time constraints of the MSFD