The fishing capacity of lakes is going down every year. It means that the number of kilogrammes of fish to be caught from one hectare of waters is falling. The reasons include undeveloped water reservoirs, non-compliance with catch limits, insufficient knowledge of amateur fishermen whose catches are bigger than the commercial ones. The fish count is largely influenced by cormorants which seek food.
Fishing areas in Warmińsko-Mazurskie Province make up nearly 40 percent of all waters used for fishing purposes in Poland. That was the reason why NIK checked how eligible entities fisheries are managed, supervised and audited in this area.
In none of 91 fishing areas under the management of the Regional Water Management Authorities (RWMA) in Gdańsk and Warsaw was the fisheries management reasonable. Since the RWMA did not transfer the reservoirs for use to other entities, it was obliged by the law to manage those areas on its own. Most areas have been undeveloped for at least seven and a half years. Though, the lack of stocking, failure to keep proper structure of species or the fish count did not prevent the sale of permits for amateur fishing in those areas.
The fisheries management is conducted based on fishery plans - documents specifying the planned size of catches, stocking and even the maximum number of persons who could do amateur catches in a reservoir on a single day. 40 percent of audited entities issued regulations and permits for amateur fishing which was incompliant with the fishery plans. NIK auditors identified among others differences in daily catch limits and incorrect protection periods or sizes of fish that may be caught. In reality all fishing permits should reflect the fishery plans.
In 2011, the entities authorised to fishing caught over 1 thousand tons of fish in Warmińsko-Mazurskie Province. Cormorants caught twice as much fish. The stocking can compensate the losses caused by cormorants only to a small extent. In no way does it support the efforts to restore or maintain the fish population, so valuable in ecological, commercial and fishing terms. Poland has no strategy to manage this species. Since 2009, the Ministry of Environment has worked on the document which should be completed and implemented as soon as possible. The black cormorant issue is valid not only for Poland but also for other EU countries. That is why it is worth discussing that issue at the international level.
There are two bodies supervising inland fishery in Poland - the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Minister of Environment. Direct supervision and control functions are performed by as many as four public administration bodies. The supervision system is too complicated. According to NIK, consolidation of its elements should be considered.
Besides, NIK has found out that the Director of RWMA in Gdańsk did not have all lease agreements governing the fisheries management. Some entities managing fisheries developed fishery plans not in compliance with effective provisions and also improperly ran fishery management records. In a dozen or so cases the areas of special protection of young fish were not marked as required.
According to NIK legal provisions should be refined to take account of the following issues:
- public administration bodies executing the rights of the water owner should be obliged to reasonably manage fisheries in the areas not transferred for use to other entities,
- obligatory registration of amateur catches should be introduced,
- obligation should be defined to check periodically if the existence of protection districts is justified.
