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;
how are Estonian fish farmers doing.

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 12,331.6 tonnes

2024

Tabel KA10

Baltic Sea fish catch 47,451.3 tonnes

2024

Tabel KA20

European sprat catch in the Baltic Sea 24,237.5 tonnes

2024

Tabel KA20

Baltic herring catch in the Baltic Sea 20,135.6 tonnes

2024

Tabel KA20

Inland waters fish catch 2,720.2 tonnes

2024

Tabel KA30

Share of marine protected areas 19.3 %

2024

Tabel SN11

Fish farming production sold in Estonia 963 tonnes

2024

Tabel KA40

Sales of farmed fish roe for consumption 21.4 tonnes

2024

Tabel KA40

Sales of farmed rainbow trout 834.9 tonnes

6.4%

2024

Tabel KA40

Fish farming production sold, 2009–2024

Unit: tonnes


2009	654.8
2010	598.5
2011	392.6
2012	580.8
2013	733.2
2014	868.9
2015	798.3
2016	867.7
2017	870.5
2018	943.7
2019	1,062.0
2020	1,039.9
2021	849.5
2022	800.8
2023	918.5
2024	963.5

Baltic Sea fish catch by species, 2009–2024

Unit: tonnes

	European sprat	Baltic herring
2009	47,298.5	33,164.5
2010	47,861.7	28,861.8
2011	34,976.3	25,325.2
2012	27,697.3	22,047.4
2013	29,805.1	21,940.6
2014	28,498.3	23,130.1
2015	23,953.6	32,317.5
2016	23,686.9	33,768.7
2017	26,546.0	35,152.7
2018	29,625.6	34,726.1
2019	30,649.2	32,832.7
2020	24,309.7	28,608.0
2021	25,712.7	27,177.5
2022	27,551.9	25,313.3
2023	25,364.7	29,366.4
2024	24,237.5	20,135.6

Ocean fish catch by species, 2009–2024

Unit: tonnes

	Atlantic cod	American plaice	Shrimps	Atlantic redfish	Greenland halibut
2009	128.0	28.6	8,587.4	1,748.1	300.3
2010	92.5	9.5	9,037.4	1,340.1	441.5
2011	105.1	35.5	9,919.1	1,075.4	279.3
2012	285.3	37.5	7,575.6	368.3	266.0
2013	730.4	225.8	6,653.4	1,572.6	727.1
2014	906.8	1,176.7	5,665.1	1,300.1	1,037.2
2015	989.1	536.6	6,650.6	1,512.2	693.9
2016	528.9	1,104.6	6,953.9	1,656.0	1,092.4
2017	2,543.7	1,249.5	7,412.9	2,198.3	1,141.5
2018	2,031.0	1,690.5	8,018.6	3,590.4	1,286.2
2019	2,158.8	1,071.4	9,794.7	3,251.9	1,103.3
2020	1,288.7	1,000.3	9,174.1	1,820.3	1,066.7
2021	1,015.6	585.1	8,810.4	1,707.4	897.3
2022	798.2	488.2	11,281.9	2,018.3	495.3
2023	745.5	257.9	12,752.4	0.0	98.1
2024	854.6	225.4	10,990.3	0.5	260.0

Inland waters fish catch by species, 2013–2024

Unit: tonnes

	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
European perch	920	797	836	1,025	682	568	799	1,251	518	847	846	911
European eel	15	16	14	14	15	18	21	37	46	51	57	53
Northern pike	217	188	144	143	134	122	144	148	121	103	110	105
Pike-perch	672	657	462	761	918	736	695	949	625	479	469	562
Freshwater bream	696	850	784	757	847	754	664	712	803	748	663	739
Burbot	28	23	19	28	45	41	47	47	49	28	23	20
Atlantic salmon	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Silver bream / roach	202	235	229	222	212	211	188	220	261	284	272	258
Houting	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
European cisco	6	19	11	13	45	307	303	143	83	46	10	11
European river lamprey	40	30	47	31	41	25	34	36	27	27	35	38
Orde(Ide)	1	2	2	2	2	5	4	3	3	3	6	8
European smelt	0	0	0	0	0	355	19	56	149	0	0	0
Vimba	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other fish	51	31	27	23	13	14	14	14	17	13	14	16

Baltic Sea fish catch by species, 2015–2024

Unit: tonnes

	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
European perch	1,523	1,374	1,291	1,137	979	749	792	760	793	627
European eel	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2
Eelpout	1	0	68	69	31	35	16	29	12	16
Sea trout	16	20	17	17	17	17	15	16	16	13
Northern pike	52	42	40	68	76	77	60	55	101	98
European sprat	23,954	23,687	26,546	29,626	30,649	24,310	25,713	27,552	25,365	24,238
Pike-perch	83	107	56	66	52	20	53	24	23	21
Freshwater bream	8	7	8	9	9	6	5	6	8	6
Flounder	239	201	187	169	150	176	115	108	98	117
Burbot	5	4	3	2	2	1	1	1	1	1
Atlantic salmon	6	7	9	8	8	11	7	7	7	6
Silver bream / roach	125	140	120	133	158	183	154	204	212	135
Baltic herring	32,317	33,769	35,153	34,726	32,833	28,608	27,177	25,313	29,366	20,136
Pollan (=powan)	19	18	16	17	16	25	25	24	16	16
European river lampery	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Ide (fish)	16	27	36	49	50	48	65	69	127	195
European smelt	435	699	411	425	624	964	784	817	708	826
Atlantic cod	183	2	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1
Garfish	116	70	177	75	130	127	107	159	107	54
Vimba	93	73	88	97	119	80	75	86	88	75
Other fish	135	194	250	241	244	326	341	317	454	869

Ocean fish catch by species, 2015–2024

Unit: tonnes

	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Atlantic cod	989	529	2,544	2,031	2,159	1,289	1,016	798	746	855
Sharks	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sea bream	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Atlantic halibut	22	30	41	44	44	31	38	31	0	0
Krill	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
American plaice	537	1,105	1,249	1,690	1,071	1,000	585	488	258	225
Silver hake	114	57	55	21	0	20	523	142	0	0
Angel shark	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Octopuses	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Roundnose grenadier	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	0
Squids	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	0	0	0
Shrimps	6,651	6,954	7,413	8,019	9,795	9,174	8,810	11,282	12,752	10,990
Winter flounder	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Splendid alfonsino	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cutlassfish	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Capelin	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Atlantic mackerel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Blue grenadier	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Atlantic redfish	1,512	1,656	2,198	3,590	3,252	1,820	1,707	2,018	0	0
Wolffishes	1	8	30	36	15	3	0	0	0	0
Witch flounder	22	40	66	31	27	127	73	4	0	0
Red hake	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Blue whiting	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Roughhead grenadier	26	13	23	12	3	11	46	3	0	0
Skate	47	162	304	46	7	2	26	27	0	0
Yellowtail flounder	342	351	39	347	358	335	315	393	0	0
Saithe	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
European pilchard	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sardinellas	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Blue ling	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Atlantic horse mackerel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Black scabbardfish	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Greenland halibut	694	1,092	1,142	1,286	1,103	1,067	897	495	98	260
Black drum	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tuna	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
White hake	0	0	0	1	0	10	2	0	0	0
Butterfish	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Other fish	38	31	31	0	0	4	1	0	0	0

News

All related news

News

A record quantity of fish roe was sold last year

According to Statistics Estonia, in 2024, fish and crayfish farms sold 963 tonnes of commercial fish and crayfish, for a total of 7.8 million euros. Compared with 2023, the sold quantity of fish farming production grew by 5%. The quantity of fish roe sold was a little over 21 tonnes, which is the highest amount ever.

Fishing

Fish farming production sold, 2009–2024

Unit: tonnes

Baltic Sea fish catch by species, 2009–2024

Unit: tonnes

Ocean fish catch by species, 2009–2024

Unit: tonnes

Inland waters fish catch by species, 2013–2024

Unit: tonnes

Baltic Sea fish catch by species, 2015–2024

Unit: tonnes

Ocean fish catch by species, 2015–2024

Unit: tonnes

News

A record quantity of fish roe was sold last year

Output of fish farms increased, prices remained largely unchanged

In fish farming, output decreased but the prices increased