By doing this you will be giving better-known fish time to recover their populations. Roughly 35 different species of fish are caught in the coastal seas of Estonia every year. How many of them have you eaten?
Above all else, the sea has always been a good source of food. Today there are roughly 60 million professional fishers in the world, and in Estonia there are over 1600 coastal fishers, who gain a large part of their income specifically from fishing. Were fish to disappear from the seas, many villages would empty and life on the coast would die out.
Fish and seafood are some of the world's healthiest foods: fish contains omega-3 acids and iodine, which support brain activity. Fish also contains vitamin D (which strengthens the bones and boosts the immune system) and iron (which promotes the production of blood).
Did you know that jelly sweets are made from a bush-like red algae species called furcellaria that grows in the Baltic Sea? Furcellaria is caught from the sea using a net or picked from the beach. By heating it you obtain a gel-like substance called furcellaran. Jelly sweets are made from it, and it is also an important component in the cosmetics industry.
Furcellaria (Furcellaria lumbricalis). Photo: Kaire Kaljurand
Garfish (Belone belone). Photo: Tiit Hunt