Commercial marine fishery 2023 (preliminary)

According to preliminary estimates, Finland’s commercial marine fishermen caught a total of 90 million kilos of fish in 2023.

• A total of 69 million kilos of Baltic herring and 15 million kilos of sprat were caught. Catches of both species increased by around one million kilos compared to the previous year.
• The Baltic herring and sprat catches, mainly caught from the open sea by the trawler fleet, contained 94% of the total commercial marine catch.  One fifth of the Baltic herring catch and more than a half of the sprat catch were landed outside Finland.
• More vendace were caught than ever before in the statistical period since the 1980s. Almost all of the vendace catch was trawled from the Bothnian Bay.
• The majority of fishermen were operating in coastal areas and deployed trap nets and gillnets to catch. The main species were perch, European whitefish, pikeperch, salmon, pike, smelt, bream and roach.
• Compared with average catches in the 2000s, the vendace, smelt, perch, bream and roach catches were higher last year. The catches of European whitefish, salmon, trout, burbot and pikeperch were below average, but the more than ten-year decrease in the pikeperch catch stopped.
• At the end of 2023, there were 2,133 commercial fishermen registered in the Finnish marine area. Around 950 fishermen reported catches.