Poor availability of licences encourages crayfish poaching by city residents

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By Katriina Pajari
     
     How is a Helsinki resident supposed to catch crayfish? Legally it is very difficult: crayfish licences are hard to come by, and available waters are sparse the Helsinki region. Consequently, poaching is rampant.
      Poachers will raid the traps of others, or put unlicenced traps in the water.
      The most brazen will use scuba equipment to empty several traps with each dive.
      “Divers can get a very good catch, but the basic catch is usually the yield of one or two traps”, says Matti Mielonen, Helsinki’s Fishing Manager. He says that poachers generally use the crayfish that they catch themselves.
     
Vihti resident Kauko Pirttimäki goes out in his rowboat every morning and evening. As a seasoned crayfish fisherman, he has six traps, which lie at a depth of about three metres at the bottom of Saarijärvi, a lake straddling the border of Espoo and Vihti.
      Crayfish are nocturnal animals, and one might imagine that in the morning, the traps would be full.
      “The morning catch should be better than in the evening, but often there have been only small fry there. It seems that I’m not the only one who empties them.”
      Pirttimäki is the fishing inspector and chairman of the Saarijärvi fishing partnership. He does not bother to lie waiting at night for the sake of a few lost crayfish.
     
For Fishing Manager Mielonen the phenomenon is not a new one.
      He does not see it as a serious problem, but crayfish fishermen do not like to reveal their favourite locations - largely because of the poaching problem.
      For instance, in Pitkäjärvi, in Espoo, there was a flourishing population of crayfish in the early part of the decade, but when word got out, there was a surge in poaching.
      With the poaching boom, the lake was infected with the aphanomyces astaci, or crayfish plague fungus, and now the crayfish population has been almost wiped out.
      “Rarely does anyone get caught, but in Saarijärvi, for instance, a diver was caught. He was fined”, Mielonen says, describing a case from a couple of years back.
      “There has been some diving this summer as well”, says summer resident Liisa Komscha at her cabin.
      Close by the shore white balls float on the surface, signs of crayfish traps.
     
Saarijärvi has plenty of crayfish, and the water is clear.
      “There are parking places, it is easy to come here at night, and even bring a boat along”, Pirttimäki says.
      However, there are also plenty of cabins on the shore, which means that watchful eyes are also plentiful.
     
The City of Helsinki is part of nine crayfish partnerships, of which Saarijärvi is one.
      This entitles the city to sell a few dozen crayfish permits for lakes near the city. However, as demand far outstrips supply, Mielonen says that Helsinki has decided not to sell any crayfish permits, as an equitable distribution would be impossible.
      Those planning to catch crayfish must pay a fisheries fee and get the permission of the owners of the water area.
      Lakes, rivers, and ponds are usually owned by partnerships, comprisong the owners of adjacent land.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 31.7.2009


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Crayfish season starts and brings hectic times for distributors (24.7.2001)

Links:
  Travelpulse: Finland Readies for Crayfish Season
  Nordic Recipe Archive: Finnish crayfish party
  Finnish Food Safety Authority (EVIRA): Crayfish plague, a challenge for diagnostics

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