Once again the international salmon sport fishing competition “Narva Salmon 2004” will be held on the River Narva from 17 to 18 September. Similar to previous years, in addition to Estonian fishermen there will be Latvian and Finnish teams participating in this competition that will be held already for the fourth consecutive year. The objective of the salmon fishing competition is to introduce the opportunity of legal salmon fishing on the River Narva and strengthen the international solidarity of fishermen. By now, 33 amateur fishermen have signed up for this competition, but the number may increase, as the lists are still open. According to Mr Peeter Prass, specialist of the Fish Resources Department of the Ministry of the Environment, there was only one salmon amongst the fish caught during the competitions held in the last three years. “It seems that this number is likely to increase this year,” Mr Prass continued, “as local fishermen have already caught several nice salmon, the largest of which weighted slightly over 10 kilos.” The salmon of the River Narva come from the fish farms of Põlula and Ivangorod, which restock the river with hundreds of thousands of juvenile salmon each year. In most cases salmon return to their home river after two or three years spent in the sea. Natural spawning of salmon in the River Narva was discontinued after the hydroelectric power station was built in the nineteen fifties, and today almost every salmon in the River Narva comes from a fish farm. The main organiser of the salmon fishing competition is the sport fishing club Kalastaja in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment. The event is financed by the Environmental Investment Centre. The idea of the competition came from the Estonian – Russian Intergovernmental Fishery Commission who decided in August 2001 to start promoting sport fishing on the River Narva. On both days, participants in the competition will gather in the square in front of the Ida-Virumaa Environmental Service (21 Grafovi St., Narva). The registration of competitors started at noon today. The competition begins at 14:00 PM. Competitive fishing lasts from three to six today and from nine to noon tomorrow. Therefore, the registration of participants will start already at 8:00 AM tomorrow. Last year 472 salmon fishing cards were sold for salmon sport fishing on the River Narva. The owners of these cards caught 11 salmon. Besides these, 386 salmon were caught in order to obtain fish roe required for restocking, from which one-third were fish that come from Põlula and are branded by making a cut into their fat fin. Further information: Monika Kopti |
