Abstract
Herring, Clupea harengus L., is an important commercial fish species in the Baltic Sea region since medieval times. The western Baltic spring spawning herring (WBSS) is one of three major Baltic Sea herring stocks, supporting a significant over-regional fishery in the western Baltic Sea as well as in the Kattegat and Skagerrak area. One major component spawns in the vicinity of the German island of Rügen and the associated major spawning ground, the Greifswalder Bodden (GWB), a shallow, semi-enclosed sub-system of estuarine character. Research of herring biology and ecology has an extensive history in the area probably due to the long fishery tradition and the importance of this particular herring stock for the local Baltic coast economy. In this review most of the scientific findings about WBSS in its spawning areas, mainly the GWB, is summarized. This study is based on critical review of over 120 publications and scientific sources from the past 100 years containing relevant information on possible consequences of multiple environmental and anthropogenic induced stressors of herring recruitment and productivity. Besides current peer reviewed literature a significant amount of grey literature was included, consisting primarily of papers and reports written in German language and representing the only historical data sources and published documentation of regional western Baltic herring ecology.
Highlights
Herring, Clupea harengus L., is an important commercial fish species in the Baltic Sea region since medieval times (Jagow 1915, Meyer-Waarden 1943)
Among the larger herring stocks occurring in the Baltic are the ones in the Bothnian Sea, in the central Baltic and in the western Baltic Sea (Fig. 1)
One major component spawns in the vicinity of the German island of Rügen and the associated major spawning ground, the Greifswalder Bodden (GWB)
Summary
Clupea harengus L., is an important commercial fish species in the Baltic Sea region since medieval times (Jagow 1915, Meyer-Waarden 1943). Western Baltic herring stocks are classified as spring or autumn spawners according to their particular spawning mode (Biester unpublished**, Klinkhardt and Reschke unpublished***).
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