ESTONIA
New report analyses small-scale fishing in Estonia and suggests ways to rejuvenate it
Future-proofing the small-scale fishery The coastal fishery in Estonia is defined by fishing at a depth of up to 20 m. The small-scale fishery is specified as professional fishing on vessels below 12 m and using only passive gears, trawling is forbidden. The two categories overlap—the coastal fishery includes small-scale fishers as does the inland water fishery on Estonia’s largest lakes.
Fishing vessels used on the Peipsi lake, where pikeperch and perch are important species for their value on export markets.
T
he most important fish species targeted by the coastal fishing sector are perch and herring in coastal waters with marginal volumes of smelt, flounder, round goby, and vimba bream. The small-scale coastal fishery has been fairly stable over the last 10 years according to some indicators—the number of fishers (about 2,300) and the landings of fish (13-14 thousand tonnes)—however, the catch value
has increased over the last decade by 27 to just over EUR10m, and the average age of the fishers has been increasing and now stands at 53.
Stationery gears of different kinds characterise coastal fishing In Estonia coastal fishery catches are regulated by gears, mainly
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trap nets, gill nets, seine nets, and to a limited extent, longlines. Fishers have permits for a certain number of gears which determines how much they can catch, and the number of gears is based on historical fishing rights. However, the number of gears is not commensurate with the resource (the number is too high) according to Toomas Armulik, the head of the Fisheries Information
Centre in Estonian Fishery 2018, however, attempts to reduce the number of gears is resisted by the fishermen. One way forward he suggests may be for the state to buy historical fishing rights (analogous to decommissioning vessels) or to link subsidies to a reduction in effort. The marine areas where the fishers operate include the Pärnu
