LITHUANIA
flounder is carried out with the help of bottom trawls, but the risk of exceeding the bycatch quota for cod is too high, while at the same time, the price for flounder is low. The coastal fishers are better placed. While catching eastern cod is forbidden there are several other species that can be caught including round goby, herring, smelt, flounder, and vimba bream.
Giedrius Mačernis, head of the Baltic Sea Fisheries Control Division
plan their activities all year round. Now, he says, the available quotas for herring and sprat do not allow efficient fishing operations through the year. His members find it difficult to switch to other fish species such as sprat, herring, salmon, or flounder, because they (excluding flounder) are subject to quotas and swapping is not always feasible. With flounder the issue is different. Fishing for
Bycatch may not be used for human consumption The cod bycatch in the pelagics fishery is actually insignificant. In 2019 the total bycatch of cod in the pelagic fishery was about 14 tonnes while in 2020 it was about 1 tonne, reports Giedrius Maþernis, head of the Baltic Sea Fisheries Control Division. Considering that the cod bycatch quota was 202 tonnes in 2020 this was less than half a percent. The most common bycatch species are cod and flounder. Bycatch is treated in accordance with the landing
obligation that has been in force across the EU since 2019. This legislation stipulates that bycatch of undersized species caught and landed may not be used for human consumption, but instead be made into petfood, fishmeal, pharmaceuticals, or nutraceuticals, etc. It also specifies that all catches of species regulated by catch limits or minimum landing sizes must be landed and counted against the fisher’s quotas. The purpose of the legislation is to prevent discards by encouraging the use of more selective gear to avoid unwanted catches.
Coastal fishers are switching to more sustainable fishing gear In Lithuania, a combination of factors has contributed to the coastal fishing fleet switching to more sustainable fishing gears. Coastal fishers, who number 100150 people employed by about 50 companies, traditionally fish with gill nets which can be fixed
up to a depth of 20 m, the limit for coastal fishers to operate. In 2020 the Fisheries Service introduced a rule forbidding cod-specific gill nets and another that stipulated that when coastal fishers have a bycatch of cod of more than 10%, they must report it to the Fisheries Service which will suspend fishing in the area for three days, explains Mr Maþernis. To assist in the implementation of the landing obligation, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund offers fishers support to change to more sustainable gear. All these developments encouraged coastal fishers to switch from gill nets to trap nets, which have gradually become the main fishing gear in the coastal fishery. Trap nets are more selective and therefore more sustainable. The mesh size is smaller than on gill nets, so cod do not get caught. In addition, trap nets are fixed at a depth of 3.5-4 m which is closer to the shore than the gill nets were. Cod typically do not come this close to the shore reducing further the risk
The Lithuanian Fisheries Producer Association
Members process their catch to increase its value Established in 1997 the LFPA represents five companies fishing in the open Baltic Sea and 18 coastal fishing enterprises. These represent about 30% and 40% respectively of the vessels in the two segments. The vessels in the open Baltic are between 20 and 25.5 m and have been fishing mainly in the Lithuanian economic zone though previously they fished also near Denmark or Poland. The main target species are herring, sprat, cod (only bycatch), and flounder. The coastal vessels are 5-12 m in length and the fishers use passive gear targeting round goby, herring, smelt, flounder, vimba, pike-perch, garfish, and cod (only bycatch). The members are primarily fishermen, catching the fish and selling it to primary buyers. Some coastal fishers have invested in value-adding activities, such as smoking, drying, or salting which provides an additional source of income as it is difficult to make a living only from fishing activities. The last year has been particularly hard for the sector says Alfonsas Bargaila, president of LFPA, as the pandemic shut down markets, retail outlets, and the restaurant secSome small-scale fishers are extracting more value from their tor. In addition, support for the sector, he says, was received only in 2021 catch by processing the fish into smoked, dried, or salted products. although the impact of the pandemic was felt already in March 2020.
EUROFISH Magazine 3 / 2021
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