Department of Fish Biology and Fisheries
Head of department: Markus Vetemaa, PhD
The Department of Fish biology and Fisheries is split into five areas:
1) Unit of Coastal Fisheries
2) Unit of Pelagic Fisheries
3) Unit of Salmon and Trout
4)Unit of Lake Peipsi Fisheries
5) Unit of Ocean Fisheries
Every year the department 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 personel 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 requested of the Ministry of Agriculture which have been 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 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 stradegies and the year-round dynamics of fish fauna in littoral zone etc.