Recreational fisheries in the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea

Transcription

1 Recreational fisheries in the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea Results of a questionnaire Outi Heikinheimo and Antti Lappalainen FISH PRO II 2nd meeting Copenhagen February 2015

2 Questionnaire to the participants of Fish Pro II Monitoring and surveys on recreational fisheries? Existing catch and effort data, magnitude of catches compared to commercial fisheries Licenses Gear types allowed Target species Management measures catch quotas, effort restrictions, size limits for fish, technical measures such as minimum mesh sizes Significant changes in the recreational fishery or other comments

3 Monitoring and available data Surveys on a regular basis in Denmark (annually), Sweden (annually), Finland incuding Åland ( every two years) Poland and Estonia: Numbers of fishing licenses are monitored, catch data available from specific areas such as salmon rivers in Estonia In Poland the new legislation will imply reporting of catches, effort, area etc. Latvia and Lithuania: no monitoring of recreational fishing in the Baltic Sea (rod fishing) Germany: Monitoring of cod catch by angler (not published yet)

4 Recreational catch and effort vs. commercial fishery Significance of recreational fisheries is not known in many countries due to lack of monitoring In Sweden: Recreational catches even 65-95% of total catches (perch, pike, pikeperch, sea trout, whitefish), salmon 20%. Finland: recreational perch, pike and roach catches multifold compared to the commercial catches, sea trout double; whitefish and pikeperch about on the same level as commercial catches Denmark: Eel roughly 20% of the total catches, cod less than 5% Germany: The recreational cod catch is in the same range as the commercial catch

5 Licenses Angling without reel free in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia? For other gear types licenses and/or permits from water owner are needed, often for a restricted number of gear units In Germany one week s education needed to get the license for angling Finland: for other fishing than angling or ice fishing with rod ( pilkki ) general fishing license is needed (ages 18-65) For rod fishing with reel regional fishing licences or permits from water owner Other gear types (gill nets, fyke nets etc.) permits from water owners The new fishing law will cause some changes to this

6 Gear types In most countries also passive gears such as gillnets and fyke nets, longlines allowed for recreational fishers: Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia (fishing for own consumption), Germany (certain fisher groups) In Poland and Lithuania only angling allowed

7 Target fish species Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia: Perch, pike, pikeperch, whitefish, sea trout, bream, Baltic herring, flounder etc. Denmark, Poland, Lithuania; Germany Sea trout, garfish (Belone belone), cod, salmon, flatfish species, in Denmark eel is caught with fykenets In river mouths also freshwater species

8 Management measures in recreational fisheries Catch quotas in some countries: Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany reported daily quotas for e.g. sea trout, salmon, pike, perch and flounder In Finland quotas are discussed for predator species in connection of the new fishing law. Minimum size limits are commonly applied, e.g. sea trout, salmon, grayling, pikeperch, pike, in some countries also perch, flounder; Åland bream and whitefish In Sweden also maximum length for pike (allowed catch size cm) Maximum lengths are discussed in Finland, too

9 Other restrictions Various seasonal or areal restrictions, mainly targeted to protect the spawning areas or spawning migrations of fish Limitations to gillnet mesh sizes Sweden: Salmon with intact adipose fin have to be released The same in Finland for sea trout, Gulf of Finland, public water area (also higher minimum size than elsewhere) In Finland the water owners can set different (more strict) regulations

10 Recent changes in recreational fishing Sweden and Finland: Fishing with passive gear less popular than before Rod fishing has become more effective and is often species-specific Echosounding is used by recreational fishermen Fishing tourism from inland areas to the coast is common in Finland Fishermen from other countries? Lithuania: increase in the recreational fishing for cod Poland: also increased sprot fishing in the sea area

11 Kiitos!

12 12 Teppo Tutkija