Fishing

Fishing has been an important source of livelihood for people living in coastal Estonia. European sprat and Baltic herring have always been a part of the Estonian diet. Rainbow trout from fish farms has shown up more recently. Fish caught in Estonian waters and processed here reaches also the tables of people living in other countries.

Fishing and aquaculture statistics provide the following information:

which fish and from which water bodies are caught the most;
what is the state of spawning stock;
how are Estonian fish farmers doing;
how many people are employed in aquaculture and fishing.

Fisheries statistics are used to plan and monitor fishing activities, to manage fish stocks, taking into account the ecosystem, in order to reduce the negative impact of fishing activities and to secure fish stocks for the future.

Ocean fish catch 15,681.7 tonnes

2022

Baltic Sea fish catch 55,549.5 tonnes

2022

European sprat catch in the Baltic Sea 27,551.9 tonnes

2022

Baltic herring catch in the Baltic Sea 25,313.3 tonnes

2022

Inland waters fish catch 2,630.4 tonnes

2022

Condition of spawning stock biomass in the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Riga 387,052 tonnes

2021

Share of marine protected areas 18.7 %

2021

Fish farming production sold in Estonia 801 tonnes

2022

Sales of farmed fish roe for consumption 2.7 tonnes

2022

Fish farming production sold | 2007–2022

Source data in the statistical database: KA40

Baltic Sea fish catch by species | 2007–2022

Source data in the statistical database: KA20

Ocean fish catch by species | 2007–2022

Source data in the statistical database: KA10

Inland waters fish catch by species | 2007 – 2022

Unit: tonnes

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
European perch	365	759	820	1,217	777	1,077	920	797	836	1,025	682	568	799	1,251	518	847
European eel	24	24	16	14	13	15	15	16	14	14	15	18	21	37	46	51
Northern pike	176	90	102	85	135	203	217	188	144	143	134	122	144	148	121	103
Pike-perch	929	668	723	534	711	681	672	657	462	761	918	736	695	949	625	479
Freshwater bream	546	768	782	574	677	681	696	850	784	757	847	754	664	712	803	748
Burbot	37	33	30	29	32	25	28	23	19	28	45	41	47	47	49	28
Atlantic salmon	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Silver bream / roach	269	252	211	223	246	223	202	235	229	222	212	211	188	220	261	284
Houting	2	1	3	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
European cisco	1	1	1	1	1	2	6	19	11	13	45	307	303	143	83	46
European river lamprey	62	67	59	40	39	45	40	30	47	31	41	25	34	36	27	27
Orde(Ide)	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	5	4	3	3	3
European smelt	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	355	19	56	149	0
Vimba	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other fish	154	84	81	49	17	15	51	31	27	23	13	14	14	14	17	13

Source data in the statistical database: KA30

Baltic Sea fish catch by species | 2007 – 2022

Unit: tonnes

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
European perch	777	703	810	879	796	550	1,217	1,567	1,523	1,374	1,291	1,137	979	749	792	760
European eel	6	5	4	3	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2
Eelpout	2	1	0	1	3	4	1	0	1	0	68	69	31	35	16	29
Sea trout	17	12	14	12	14	17	15	15	16	20	17	17	17	17	15	16
Northern pike	14	16	13	23	32	35	66	65	52	42	40	68	76	77	60	55
European sprat	51,007	48,602	47,298	47,862	34,976	27,697	29,805	28,498	23,954	23,687	26,546	29,626	30,649	24,310	25,713	27,552
Pike-perch	99	64	67	73	111	147	122	173	83	107	56	66	52	20	53	24
Freshwater bream	9	7	5	4	8	11	9	13	8	7	8	9	9	6	5	6
Flounder	335	284	288	285	280	243	284	313	239	201	187	169	150	176	115	108
Burbot	3	1	1	1	2	2	3	5	5	4	3	2	2	1	1	1
Atlantic salmon	6	6	5	4	4	5	7	5	6	7	9	8	8	11	7	7
Silver bream / roach	102	84	81	88	106	111	102	124	125	140	120	133	158	183	154	204
Baltic herring	26,108	31,838	33,164	28,862	25,325	22,047	21,941	23,130	32,317	33,769	35,153	34,726	32,833	28,608	27,177	25,313
Pollan (=powan)	31	30	23	16	15	20	26	26	19	18	16	17	16	25	25	24
European river lampery	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ide (fish)	9	11	9	6	6	4	7	12	16	27	36	49	50	48	65	69
European smelt	549	739	771	452	200	406	517	234	435	699	411	425	624	964	784	817
Atlantic cod	946	973	821	796	1,180	689	249	165	183	2	1	1	2	1	1	1
Garfish	110	82	71	86	118	25	19	44	116	70	177	75	130	127	107	159
Vimba	35	32	23	30	50	53	56	84	93	73	88	97	119	80	75	86
Other fish	79	85	79	89	124	142	111	153	135	194	250	241	244	326	341	317

Source data in the statistical database: KA20

Ocean fish catch by species | 2007 – 2022

Unit: tonnes

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Atlantic cod	25	73	128	93	105	285	730	907	989	529	2,544	2,031	2,159	1,289	1,016	798
Sharks	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sea bream	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Atlantic halibut	0	3	0	3	3	10	11	25	22	30	41	44	44	31	38	31
Krill	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
American plaice	33	77	29	9	36	37	226	1,177	537	1,105	1,249	1,690	1,071	1,000	585	488
Silver hake	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Angel shark	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Octopuses	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Roundnose grenadier	140	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Squids	0	0	5	43	329	1,248	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	0
Shrimps	12,076	12,742	8,587	9,037	9,919	7,576	6,653	5,665	6,651	6,954	7,413	8,019	9,795	9,174	8,810	11,282
Winter flounder	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Splendid alfonsino	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cutlassfish	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Capelin	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Atlantic mackerel	0	0	0	0	0	0	1,367	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Blue grenadier	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Atlantic redfish	1,040	1,003	1,748	1,340	1,075	368	1,573	1,300	1,512	1,656	2,198	3,590	3,252	1,820	1,707	2,018
Wolffishes	10	2	5	12	0	0	1	14	1	8	30	36	15	3	0	0
Witch flounder	24	38	8	11	14	33	16	40	22	40	66	31	27	127	73	4
Red hake	2	0	0	19	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Blue whiting	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Roughhead grenadier	69	132	41	93	116	72	110	136	26	13	23	12	3	11	46	3
Skate	366	123	29	228	82	161	155	246	47	162	304	46	7	2	26	27
Yellowtail flounder	25	33	0	4	13	32	350	24	342	351	39	347	358	335	315	393
Saithe	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
European pilchard	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sardinellas	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Blue ling	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Atlantic horse mackerel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Black scabbardfish	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Greenland halibut	366	299	300	441	279	266	727	1,037	694	1,092	1,142	1,286	1,103	1,067	897	495
Black drum	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tuna	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
White hake	32	19	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	10	2	0
Butterfish	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other fish	704	16	1	1,510	2,618	1,902	36	277	152	88	85	22	0	24	524	142

Source data in the statistical database: KA10

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In fish farming, output decreased but the prices increased

According to Statistics Estonia, in 2022, fish farming enterprises sold 801 tonnes of commercial fish and crayfish, for a total of 4.9 million euros. The sale of fish roe amounted to 2.7 tonnes. The sold quantity of fish farming production decreased for the third year in a row. The quantity of fish roe sold in 2022 was 8 times smaller than the year before.

Sales of crayfish and fish roe grew the most last year

According to Statistics Estonia, in 2020, fish farming enterprises sold 1,039 tonnes of commercial fish and crayfish, for a total of more than 4 million euros. The biggest increase occurred for fish roe placed on the market, with record sales registered.

Last year, a record amount of aquaculture production was sold

According to Statistics Estonia, in 2018, aquaculture enterprises sold 944 tonnes of commercial fish and crayfish, with a total value of 4.2 million euros. The volume of aquaculture production sold in 2018 was highest in the last twenty five years.