ESTONIA
Fisheries Information Centre
A broad network of information exchange
S
ince 2016, the activities of the Information Centre have been funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund under two frameworks: “Grant for the Promotion of Cooperation between Scientists and Fishermenâ€? and “Grant for the Promotion of Cooperation between Scientists and Aquaculture Operatorsâ€?. To better coordinate the activities of the centre it has a council consisting of the umbrella organizations of the fisheries and aquaculture sector, various higher education institutions, agencies supervising fisheries, and representatives of fishing areas. Six people work daily in the centre, with recently renovated offices in Pärnu at their disposal.
Baltic Sea Fisheries Forum holds its first meeting One of the Information Centre’s activities includes facilitating the exchange of knowledge among neighboring countries, so governments can learn from and share information on the status of their fisheries. An example of this international collaboration was the first meeting of the Baltic Sea Fisheries Forum, which the Information Centre organized with the Estonian Association of Fishery in Pärnu in April this year. 52
At the forum, Olavi Petron, Deputy Secretary General for Fisheries Policy and Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Rural Affairs, gave a long and thorough overview about the current state and future perspectives of Estonian fisheries sector. It became clear in the presentation that the Estonian fisheries exhibit the same tendencies as those in Europe and around the world. Natural stocks of most fish species have been managed at levels that are unlikely to allow for an increase in catch, and almost a third of ocean fish stocks suffer from overfishing. Mr Petron’s overview also revealed that Estonia still cannot keep up with the rest of the world in its ratio between fish produced by aquaculture and fish caught in the wild. In 2014, farmed fish was consumed in similar amounts to wild fish around the world, but since then the percentage of farmed fish has increased globally, while in Estonia aquaculture production has stayed at the same level, leaving much room for development. The presentation by Didzis Šmits, a representative of the Latvian Association of Fisheries, also revealed that to remain competitive in the future, the fisheries sector must emphasize
JĂźri Vlassov
The Fisheries Information Centre was established In 2011 at the University of Tartu with the support of the European Fisheries Fund. It is a one-stop-shop for the ďŹ sheries sector (ďŹ shing, aquaculture, ďŹ sh processing and marketing) and consumers of ďŹ sh and ďŹ shery products to obtain up-to-date know-how, training and advice. It also aims to promote consumer awareness and lifelong learning in the ďŹ sheries sector through the dissemination of scientiďŹ c and legislative information, experience and good practice.
Speakers at the Baltic Sea Fisheries Forum, (left to right) Hartwig Retzlaff, Deutsche See; Aina Afanasjeva, Eurofish; Valdur Noormägi Estonian Association of Fishery; Olavi Petron, Estonian Ministry of Rural Affairs; Janis Endele, Karavela Ltd; Didzis Šmits, Latvian Association of Fishery.
innovation. Like Estonian fish processing companies, who were largely dependent upon the eastern market, Latvians were also seriously influenced by Russia’s decision to close its borders to European fish products. This forced Latvians to seek new markets and put more effort into product development. In doing so, Latvians have also managed to set completely new standards for innovation. By renaming their sprat, a fish rarely found in the Western world, to “sardines�, a fish common to all of Europe, the canned food factories producing sprats survived even after Russian borders were closed.
Carl-Erik Spring from the Finnish Fish Processing Industries’ and Fish Traders’ Association, Aleksei Kuzin from the Association of Fish Industries of Russian Federation, Sofia Lepke from Ultrafish, Ja-nis Endele from the Latvian company Karavela Ltd. and Aina Afanasjeva from Eurofish made forward-looking presentations at the forum as well. On the second day of the forum, foreign visitors were introduced to the fish processing company AS Japs in Pärnu along with the refrigerating plant of the producer organisation Estonian Fishing Association in Audru. Based on the enthusiastic response of the participants, it
www.eurofishmagazine.com
" (+%%