Fishes, their biology and fisheries management in Lake Peipsi

Abstract

Lake Peipsi is a large (3558 km2) and relatively shallow (up to 15.3 m) productive smelt-bream-pikeperch lake on the territories of Estonia and Russia. 34 fish and lamprey species inhabit this lake permanently, the main commercial fishes being smelt, perch, ruffe, roach, bream, pike, up to the 1990s also vendace and lately pikeperch. The second-rate commercial fishes are burbot, whitefish, white bream and bleak. In general, the spawning and feeding conditions of fishes are more or less favourable in the lake. Bream and pike grow fast, the majority of the other investigated fish species passably. The total catch of fish has usually been 9000–12000 t (25–34 kg ha−1) a year. As a result of the intensive use of trawls and fine-meshed Danish seines, the stock of pikeperch was strongly suppressed for a long time. After trawls were prohibited and the number of Danish seines considerably restricted, the stock and catches of pikeperch began to grow rapidly; pikeperch has become one of the main commercial fishes in the lake. During the last years the abundance of vendace has sharply decreased, and it has lost (we hope, temporarily) its economic importance. This is probably caused, first of all, by the high mortality of its eggs on the spawning grounds during successive mild winters of the last years. An increasing pressure from pikeperch (a big predator) has also contributed to strong decline of the stock of vendace. It would be reasonable to begin a regular introduction of elvers into the lake.