Coastal fishing continues to decline

Finland’s commercial marine fishery catch in 2018 amounted to 148 million kilos, sliding seven million kilos lower than that in the year before, according to the statistics of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

The catch mainly consisted of Baltic herring and sprat caught offshore by means of trawling. In coastal areas, the primary gears were gillnets and traps.

While the total volume of coastal fishing continued to decrease, the catches of a few species increased.

According to the statistics, last year’s Baltic herring catch totalled 126 million kilos or eight million kilos lower than in the year before. The sprat catch remained as high as in the previous year, totalling 16 million kilos.

One-fifth of the herring catch and half of the sprat catch were landed outside Finland, mainly at ports in Sweden, Denmark and Estonia.

“In coastal areas, catches were 0.4 million kilos for European whitefish, 0.6 million kilos for perch, and 0.2 million kilos for both pikeperch and salmon. The long-term decrease in perch, salmon and pikeperch catches ceased, while the European whitefish catch continued to decrease,” said Pirkko Söderkultalahti, a senior statistician at Luke.

The value of the catch was EUR 36 million, calculated on the basis of fish producer prices excluding value added tax. The most valuable species was Baltic herring, followed by sprat, European whitefish, perch and pikeperch.

“Demand for domestic fish increased the producer prices of most fish species from that in the previous year. This may have resulted from the relatively high price of farmed fish and the growing popularity of local food,” said Antti Takolander, a research scientist at Luke.

“In 2018, the register of commercial fishermen included 2,499 commercial fishermen in sea areas and 3,233 fishing vessels. Both the numbers of registered commercial fishermen and fishing vessels have increased in recent years as a result of the stricter registration requirement of the new Fishing Act,” said Söderkultalahti.

Instead, the number of fishermen who actually reported commercial catches has decreased year after year. Last year, 1,125 fishermen reported catches. This figure is 1,000 smaller than that at the beginning of the 2000s.

In the EU, the number, power and volume of fishing vessels have decreased during the past 10 years. At the same time, the size and value of catches have increased.