Commercial marine fishery 2024

Finnish commercial marine fishermen caught a total of 72 million kilos of fish in 2024, 17 million kilos less than in the year before.

• The Baltic herring and sprat catches, mainly caught by the trawler fleet, contained 91% of the total catch.
• A total of 54 million kilos of Baltic herring and 12 million kilos of sprat were caught. The Baltic herring catch decreased by almost sixteen million kilos and the sprat catch by three million kilos from the previous year.
• The value of the catch, EUR 36 million, was only two million euros less than in the previous year, due to the better price paid for herring compared to the previous year. Group 1 and 2 fishermen caught €29.3 million and €6.5 million respectively.
• Measured by value, Baltic herring was the most significant species (EUR 19.8 million), followed by sprat (EUR 4.0 million), vendace (EUR 2.6 million), perch (EUR 2.1 million), European whitefish (EUR 1.8 million), pikeperch (EUR 1.8 million) and bream (EUR 1.1 million).
• 16% of the Baltic herring catch and 64% of sprat catch were landed outside Finland.
• More vendace were caught than at any time since 1980. Almost all the vendace catch was trawled from the Bothnian Bay.
• Perch, smelt, bream and roach catches were higher compared to the long-term average (1980-2023). Catches of European whitefish, salmon, burbot and trout were below average. While the pikeperch catch was smaller than average, it increased for the second year in succession.
• A total of 1,121 vessels were used in commercial fishery. Gillnets and traps were used on 1,075 vessels, while 46 were trawlers. Ice fishing was also carried out in winter without any vessels.