Catching crayfish

Catching crayfish is allowed from August 1 to August 31.

A fishing card is required for fishing, which can be purchased from the website of the Environmental Board and  kalaluba.ee. 

A trap or a dip-net may be used as fishing gear. Fishing with hand is not allowed.

Consent of the owner of a water body is needed for fishing on a private water body (water body that is not for public use).

One person is authorised to catch crayfish with one to five crayfish catching gear within one fishing area (generally a county, or as an exception, some specific water body), in Saaremaa for twenty-four hours. One fishing card costs 15 or 20 euros, depens on the fishing area. 

A minimum size of 11 cm has been established for crayfish and specimens smaller than this must be returned to the water body. One person is allowed to catch up to 25 crayfish in the right size per twenty-four hours.

Maintenance of the fishing gear

In order to prevent the spread of diseases, caught crayfish must not be reintroduced in other water bodies without the permission of the Environmental Board. Fishing gear should also be disinfected after fishing. The most suitable way to do this is to leave the gear in the sun for a few hours, which should destroy the disease-causing agents.

Non-native species

There are three types of non-native species of crayfish in Estonia: signal crayfish, spiny-cheek crayfish, marbled crayfish and narrow-clawed crayfish.

You can read more about the non-native species here:  

If you suspect that you have caught one of the aforementioned non-native species, you should notify the Environmental Board of this at info@keskkonnaamet.ee. If possible, add photos of the caught specimen.

A fishing card is required for catching crayfish. The submitting of applications starts at 9:00 on the first working day of July.

More information about the application can be found on the fisheries application page.