Total marine fisheries extractions by country in the Baltic Sea

.
Total marine fisheries extractions by country in the Baltic Sea: 1950-present, Rossing, Booth and Zeller 63
CATCH RECONSTRUCTION FOR ESTONIA IN THE BALTIC SEA FROM 1950–
2007 1
Liane Veitch, Shawn Booth, Sarah Harper, Peter Rossing and Dirk Zeller
Sea Around Us Project, Fisheries Centre
University of British Columbia, 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z4, Canada; email:
l.veitch@fisheries.ubc.ca; s.booth@fisheries.ubc.ca; s.harper@fisheries.ubc.ca;
p.rossing@fisheries.ubc.ca; d.zeller@fisheries.ubc.ca
ABSTRACT
We estimated the total marine fisheries catches taken by Estonia (including the USSR period) in the Baltic
Sea from 1950-2007 using an approach called ‗catch reconstruction‘. Estonia-specific ICES landing
statistics are available from 1991-2007, and these form the reported data baseline, to which we added
disaggregated data from the USSR period for commercial landings as well as estimates of unreported
commercial landings, discards, and recreational catches. Over the entire study period (1950-2007) the
total reconstructed catch was estimated at 5.8 million tonnes. Our reconstruction for the period when
ICES landings statistics are available for Estonia (1991-2007), yielded a cumulative catch of approximately
1.5 million tonnes. This is 300,000 t larger than the landings attributed to Estonia by ICES during this
period. Our approach indicates that total catches since 1991 were approximately 28% higher than given by
ICES, yet we believe this reconstruction represents a conservative estimate. The main species targeted by
the commercial fisheries are cod (Gadus morhua), herring (Clupea harengus), and sprat (Sprattus
sprattus).
INTRODUCTION
Estonia is a small country (45,100 km 2 ) on the
eastern edge of the Baltic Sea with a population
estimated as 1,347,000 in 2005 (UN, 2008),
which comprises approximately 0.46% of the
total Baltic population. Estonia, which declared
its independence from the USSR in August
1991, shares a border to the south with Latvia
and an eastern border with the Russian
Federation (Figure 1). Estonia has a 12 nautical
mile territorial limit (within which only
nationals are licensed to fish), although
Estonian fishers have access to areas beyond
this boundary (FAO, 2005). In recent years, the
most important fisheries species have been
herring (Clupea harengus), sprat (Sprattus
sprattus), and Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua).
Estonia‘s fisheries can be divided into four
segments: 1) Baltic open-sea fishing (trawling);
2) Baltic coastal small-scale fishing (using
passive gears); 3) Distant Water Fleet fishing in
the Atlantic; and 4) inland freshwater fishing.
Denmark
Figure 1. Map of the Baltic Sea with ICES subdivisions
and surrounding countries. Estonia‘s coastline borders
ICES subdivisions 28-1, 28-2, 29 and 32.
1) The open-sea fishery in the Baltic targets herring and sprat using 20–25 m vessels left over from the
Soviet era (late 1980s). In 2004, the number of vessels was approximately 150, two-thirds of which were
22
23
Germany
Sweden
24
25
27
30
26
Poland
28-2
29
RF
31
28-1
Finland
Latvia
Lithuania
32
Estonia
Russian
Federation
(RF)
0 200 400 Km
N
1 Cite as: Veitch, L., Booth, S., Harper, S., Rossing, P., and Zeller, D. (2010) Catch reconstruction for Estonia in the Baltic Sea from
1950-2007. pp. 63-84. In: Rossing, P., Booth, S. and Zeller, D. (eds.), Total marine fisheries extractions by country in the Baltic Sea:
1950-present. Fisheries Centre Research Reports 18 (1). Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Canada [ISSN 1198-6727].