Department of Fish Biology and Fisheries

The Department of Fish Biology and Fisheries is divided into six working groups:

• Unit of Coastal Fisheries;
• Unit of Pelagic Fisheries;
• Unit of Salmon and Trout;
• Unit of Lake Peipsi Fisheries;
• Unit of Ocean Fisheries.

Every year the Estonian Marine Institute's Department of Fish Biology and Fisheries carries out fish stock monitoring, which includes inland water (Peipsi lake) and the Baltic Sea (Baltic herring, cod, Sprattus sprattus balticus) as well as the Atlantic Ocean, where the department’s personnel work as commercial fishing observers. In addition to applied research, which is financed by the Ministry of the Environment, many studies have been undertaken at request of the Ministry of Agriculture and funded by the European Fisheries Fund. For example, the analysis of conflicts between seals and fishermen and development of solutions, and the study of fish spawning and the improvement of spawning conditions using different artificial substances. 

There are also many students at the University of Tartu, therefore, the Department of Fish Biology and Fisheries is also focused on fundamental research: otolith microchemical studies for analysing migratory species migration, fresh water fish’s adaptions for coping in Baltic Sea, analysis of salmonids reproduction strategies and the year-round dynamics of fish fauna in littoral zone etc.