Fewer amount of marine fishery caught in 2019

The total catch of commercial marine fishery was 136 million kilograms in 2019, being 12 million kilograms less than in the year before, according to the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

The total catch mainly consisted of Baltic herring and sprat. gGillnets and traps were the major gears in coastal areas. Catches of many species increased from the previous year, while they remained lower than on average in the 2000s, said a Luke press release.

One third of the Baltic herring catch and two thirds of the sprat catch were landed outside Finland at ports in Estonia, Denmark and Sweden.

The herring and sprat catches, mainly caught from the open sea by trawler vessels, were 95% of the total commercial marine fishery catch.

The majority of the herring catch was fished from the Bothnian Sea, while sprat was mainly caught from the Archipelago Sea.

The catches of Baltic herring, sprat, cod and salmon are constrained by multinational quotas.

“The herring quotas set for the Bothnian Bay, the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Proper have decreased in the past two years, which is reflected in lower catches. However, the herring quota was not fully utilised, while that of the sprat was fished in full. Cod and salmon catches fell short of the quota as well,” said Pirkko Söderkultalahti, senior statistician at Luke.

The majority of commercial fishermen used gillnets or traps in coastal areas. The total coastal catch was at its lowest in 2017 and 2018, if the smelt catch is not included in the statistics. Last year, salmon, European whitefish, European perch, vendace, bream and roach catches increased slightly.

However, only the roach catch was higher than on average in the 2000s. Smelt catches have increased steeply during the past two years. They accounted for half of the total coastal catch in 2019.

The decrease in catches of other species is an outcome of, inter alia, lower fishing effort.

The number of active fishermen has reduced by more than 50 % from the 2,100 fishermen at the beginning of the 2000s.