Prospering native brown trout and local fishing professions

Programme 2014 - 2020 Karelia ENI CBC

Date of latest update: 2024-01-19

Description

Description (EN): The specific objective of the project is that fisheries of Lake Pyaozero are used, controlled and managed in a way that stops erosion of fish biodiversity and makes fishing tourism a sustainable source of income for local people.

Achievements (EN):

Project Pro Trout was implemented over 43 months in 2020-2023. The specific objective of the project was that fisheries of the Russian Lake Pyaozero are used, controlled, and managed in a way that stops erosion of fish biodiversity and makes fishing tourism a sustainable source of income for local people. The original work plan, with most of the activities located in Pyaozerskiy (Paajarvi), Russia, was largely impossible to carry out due to travel ban brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and cessation of cross-border collaboration since the military attack of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in 2022. Still, valuable new information about the status of brown trout populations and their fishery in the Russian parts of their habitat was acquired during the first half of the project. During the second half, the project focused its resources and attention to the Finnish riverine parts of the Oulanka brown trout home range, improving knowledge on the state of brow trout juvenile production and -habitats in upper tributaries of River Oulankajoki with inventories and sample collections at 33 locations, piloting the use of a sonar fish counter station to count the number of brown trout returning to spawn in River Kuusinkijoki from Russia, and acquiring extensive survey data on private water area managers' views on status, threats, and appropriate management practices of brown trout stocks in Oulankajoki river system. The new knowledge of the brown trout fisheries produced by the project will be valuable for sustainable management the stocks in the Finnish parts of their home range, where they are classified as endangered while also being a popular target for recreational fishers.

Expected Results (EN):

A new type of fishing culture will be adopted in Lake Pyaozero, which ensures viability of the native brown trout populations. Local subsistence fishermen have shifted to using fykes, dragnets and fish traps instead of harmful fish nets. As a result of the project activities, the total fishing pressure on brown trout in its lake feeding life stage is expected to decrease to a level that brings the populations to a sustainable, growing state again. Increase in the fish number is expected to result also from the project activities that secure the brown trouts’ access to spawning migration at river mouths and improve their reproductive habitats in rivers. The fishing tourism entrepreneurs in Loukhsky District will have become organized, legitimately registered with the tax authority and develop their services and marketing in collaboration with each other. They will utilize brown trout, char, grayling and pike to attract fishing tourists to the region. As running of and working in fishing tourism businesses will have become economically more attractive than illegal net fishing and river-mouth fishing of brown trout, and as the local business owners alongside the officials disapprove of those practices and monitor the waters to keep poaching at bay, the illegal fishing practiced will have ceased. With the illegal fishing mortality decimated, it will be possible to market both the river fishing and recreational lake fishing services for tourists on both sides of the border without fear of depriving future generations of the same income and recreation opportunities.

Expected Outputs (EN):

The main concrete output of the project will be thousands of more brown trout annually left alive to feed in Lake Pyaozero, to reach reproductive size and and to produce more offspring, i.e more abundant natural resources for the local people to base their economy and well-being on. Other concrete outputs of the project activities will be printed media articles, information boards, outdoor posters and leaflets; Fishing Control Plan in Russian and Finnish on how to safeguard brown trout fisheries, fishing- and nature oriented based small start-up businesses, blueprints of a mobile fishery services base, a fleet of brown trout -friendly fishing devices built and put into operation in Lake Pyaozero and a complete simulation model of the transborder brown trout populations that can be used annually to set sustainable catch limits in different parts of the water system. The main output, in regard to what kind of positive change the project will create in the programme area, is that after successful implementation of the project, the fisheries of Lake Pyaozero are in the state of being used, controlled and managed in a way that stops erosion of fish biodiversity and makes fishing tourism a sustainable source of income for local people. This will be in stark contrast with the present situation, where the most valuable aquatic bio-resource of the Lake Pyaozero, the native brown trout, is under serious threat of extinction.

Thematic information

Agriculture and fisheries and forestry

Thematic Objective: Environmental protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation

Partners (4)

Lead Partner: Metsähallitus, Eräpalvelut

Department: Wildlife Service Finland

Address: Veteraaninkatu 5, 90101 Oulu, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.metsa.fi

Total budget: EUR 628 772.00

ENI budget: EUR 310 280.00

Luonnonvarakeskus

Name: Luonnonvarakeskus

Department: Natural Resources

Address: Maanamansalontie 90, 88300 Paltamo, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.luke.fi

ООО "Карелия-Север тур"

Name: ООО "Карелия-Север тур"

Address: Mira St., 15a, 18667 Pyazerskiy, Russia

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.karelia-sever.ru

Северный научно-исследовательский институт рыбного хозяйства Петрозаводского государственного университета

Name: Северный научно-исследовательский институт рыбного хозяйства Петрозаводского государственного университета

Department: Laboratory of Salmon Fish Population Ecology

Address: Varkausa st.,d.3, 185031 Petrozavodsk, Russia

Legal status: public

Website: http://petrsu.ru

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)

Prospering native brown trout and local fishing professions

Partners and Projects info

Karelia-Sever Tur Ltd

Prospering native brown trout and local fishing professions

Partners and Projects info

Northern Research Institute of Fisheries PetrSU (SevNIIRH)

Prospering native brown trout and local fishing professions

Partners and Projects info

Metsähallitus, Wildlife Service Finland

Prospering native brown trout and local fishing professions

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Prospering native brown trout and local fishing professions

Project acronym: PROTROUT

Project start date: 2020-03-01

Project end date: 2023-10-31

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 628 772.00

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 310 280.00

Total EU funding (co-financing rate): 49.35%

Co-financing sources:

ENPI/ENI/NDICI: Amount, EUR 310 280.00.

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 Karelia ENI CBC

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2021-07-01

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

61 / 61 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

280 / 280 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Partner budgets are not available in this programme, the Lead partners in Karelia CBC programme get all the funding. Fields project name (from 5 projects) translated from Russian into English using the European Commission's eTranslation machine translation service.

The projects which fields include an eTranslation English text are the ones with the following acronyms: BIOKARELIA, CULTA, Kalitka, Kantele-GO! and Urban Parks & Benefits.

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Prospering native brown trout and local fishing professions

Description

Thematic information

Partners (4)

Partners map

Summary

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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