Lake Ladoga belongs to the group of water bodies of the highest fisheries category. The lake, including channels and lower reaches of the rivers flowing into it, is inhabited by 58 fish species and forms. The most valuable ones are salmonids with 7 known species. The area has salmon, trout, lake char, whitefish, grayling and other valuable species.
The major commercial species are vendace, smelt, perch, roach, bream, Ladoga cisco, ruffe. Limited-harvest species are whitefish and pike-perch. There are also some minor catches of ide, burbot, white bream, grayling, pike. Protected species are Volkhov whitefish and salmon.
In recent years the stocks of such species as salmon, trout and lake char decreased most significantly. Lake char catches in the early 1950's reached 47-55 ton, salmon and trout catches - 133-164 ton. Lake char and trout now lost their commercial value.
Table 4.4.1. Total allowable catch (TAC) in Lake Ladoga for the year 1998
Leningrad region (total allowable catch)
Republic of Karelia (registered catch)
Larger under-size fish
Notice. Data on registered catch are not available for the Leningrad region, TAC is not defined for Republic of Karelia
Salmon fisheries have long become symbolic with no more than several ton annual catch. Alongside with the three species mentioned above commercial value was lost by all forms of land-locked coregonids, and vimba. Common sturgeon disappeared from Lake Ladoga.
Preliminary analysis of the bulk commercial fishes as well as their use is given in the
"Fish resources and level of their exploitation concerning major commercial fishes".
So the stocks of smelt, perch, roach and ruffe are quite large. At the same time supplies of vendace, Ladoga cisco, whitefish and pike-perch have decreased significantly due to overfishing, illeagal fishing and waterpollution at the sites of their concentration.
Commercial fisheries are also allowed in Lake Ladoga. The Department for protection and reproduction of fish resources, and fisheries control (Sevzaprybvod) sets annual allowable catch for fisheries enterprises of the Leningrad region. These sets are identified basing on the assessments of the Ladoga lake fish resources and thus may reflect their state. E.g., in 1999 it was 4240 ton/year. At the same time state organisations are responsible for registering actual catch of commercial fish stocks. (Table 4.4.1).
Amateur fishing with licences stating the fishing period and size of catch issued to users is also quite intensive in the Lake Ladoga area. The main amateur fishing objects are: perch, roach, white bream, burbot, bream, pike, Crucian carp, ide. No assessment was done on impact of amateur fishing on fish resources of the Ladoga region. Furthermore, no data is available on increase of license-less fishing by local people during the period when economic situation in the region started to go down.
Data from long-term observations indicates that the populations of valuable fish species are
currently maintained solely due to the activities of the fish farms (see
"Economy. Fish resources.").