Questions & answers

Kalix Löjrom (Kalix vendace roe) is a unique food that can only be obtained from vendace caught in the brackish waters of the Bothnian Bay. The Norrbotten archipelago has a special environment with clean water and low salinity, which the vendace needs in order to reproduce. The area is the world’s largest brackish-water archipelago: mineral-rich water from the great national rivers flows into the sea and renews the water of the Bothnian Bay every three years.

To be called Kalix Löjrom, the fishing and production must meet certain requirements. The vendace must be caught in the EU-designated area along the Bothnian Bay coast off the municipalities of Kalix, Haparanda, Luleå and Piteå.

Annual catches are set by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management in cooperation with professional fishermen and marine research, to ensure long-term sustainable fishing. The best quality is achieved through careful craftsmanship: within 24 hours of landing, the roe must be cleaned, dried, salted, packed and ready for freezing.

Carp fish (the family Cyprinidae) are a family of fish, up to 19 species of which live in the Baltic Sea. The best known in our waters are bream, ide and roach. Other carp fish in our waters include tench, crucian carp and bleak.

Within the project, fishing initially takes place in the Bothnian Bay and along the coast of Gotland.

Bream and ide are fished in spring and early summer, from April to the end of June, and in autumn from August to October.

The fish are caught with gentle gear known as fyke nets and trap nets. The fish swim in on their own, which reduces the risk of injury. Fyke nets and trap nets are selective gear, adapted to the species and size we want to catch.

Other fish easily escape through escape openings in the gear without being harmed. The Baltic Fish project uses gear that catches almost exclusively the right fish, so bycatch is not large. The gear also does not injure the fish the way trawls or nets do – any bycatch that is caught is unharmed when released.

Yes! Bream and ide have a mild flavour and are therefore easy to season. Carp fish used to be a common food around the Baltic Sea, and in Finland it is still very popular. When other species such as salmon became popular in Sweden, bream fell out of favour. Thanks to new working methods and production lines, it is now easy to make use of the flesh – the result is a tasty mince with no bones at all.

Eating bream and ide is not dangerous. On the contrary, the health benefits of eating fish are considerable.

Bream and ide are lean fish and therefore do not store high levels of harmful substances in their flesh. Samples checked by the Swedish Food Agency have shown that levels of PCBs and dioxins are low and well below the applicable limits.

Eating sustainable, wild-caught Baltic fish, especially underused species, benefits the sea and is a climate-smart food choice.

There are plenty of carp fish such as bream and ide in the Baltic Sea, and their numbers have grown as a result of eutrophication and a decline in the predatory fish that would otherwise keep their populations down. Fishing bream and ide removes nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen from the water and reduces eutrophication. The project also supports small-scale coastal fishing.

At present there is no more effective way to reduce the amount of nutrients in the sea. In Finland, the annual fish catch removes almost 700 tonnes of phosphorus from the water – more than the annual load from the wastewater of Finnish towns, industry and rural areas combined.

No. Phosphorus is a naturally occurring element that all living organisms need to grow. After calcium, phosphorus is the most abundant mineral in the human body – about 85 percent of it is found in the skeleton as calcium phosphate. Phosphorus is also present in almost all foods.

The project works to make the whole production chain – from catch to plate – sustainable. Fishing carp fish reduces eutrophication and helps restore the balance between carp fish and predatory fish. Compliance by the fishermen is checked through spot checks, catch reports and sales receipts. Carp fishing is also a new source of income for many coastal fishermen and makes it possible to live from small-scale fishing.

The regional County Administrative Boards supervise the fishing, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) analyses catch data within the project.

The County Administrative Board in each region monitors the fishing within the project using catch reports. Together with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the project also keeps statistics on the fish that are released.

Unfortunately, established certifications cannot be applied to new, small-scale coastal fishing. Instead, we have drawn up our own agreement with the fishermen in the project to ensure sustainable fishing, together with national and regional authorities, fish producers and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). The fishing is now green-listed in WWF’s seafood guide.