The annual allowed catch of Baltic herring on the Baltic Sea (ICES sub-regions 28-2, 29 and 32) in 2011, on the basis of a fisherman’s fishing licence, is 1126 tons. According to the amendment to the regulation, after the jointly caught 826 tons, the rest of the quota will be divided by 50 tons equally between Saare, Hiiu, Lääne, Harju, Lääne-Viru and Ida-Viru counties. This enables the fishermen of these Counties to catch the rest of the quota at the best suitable time. The amendment of the regulation helps to avoid the situation of 2010 when, after the Baltic herring quota was used up, pound net fishing was closed on July 1, wherefore the fishermen of these counties were also not able to fish for garfish with pound nets. “The Baltic herring quota allocated for coastal fishing has been caught so far in the coastal sea of Eastern and Northern Estonia until the quota is used up,” Chief Specialist of the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of the Environment said. “However, depending on the weather conditions, fishing starts considerably earlier in Lääne and Hiiu Counties than it does in Viru County, and therefore the Baltic herring catches of Lääne and Ida-Viru Counties with pound nets may be poorer, because upon using up of the common quota, the entire pound net fishing is closed,” she specified. According to Näks, the fishermen are interested in fishing for garfish and to a smaller extent, also for autumn herring, which is also done with pound nets. Therefore the fishermen asked for an amendment to the fishing regulation that would enable them to catch the part of the quota allocated to the Counties in the best suitable time. According to the draft, the Estonian quota for perch will also be reduced by 6 tons due to overfishing that took place on lakes Peipus, Lämmi and Pskov last year. Therefore, in 2011, Estonian fishermen are allowed to catch 1744 tons of perch. The former allowed quota was 1750 tons. |
