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By Jukka Perttu and Laura Pekonen

Finland is set to get a new group of professional specialists when fishing vessels will be required to have crew members qualified in spotting porpoises - marine mammals that are quite rare in Finnish waters.

The change is linked with the recent decision by agriculture ministers of the European Union calling for a ban on the use of driftnets for catching salmon and whitefish in the Baltic Sea. The ban will be implemented by degrees until it is fully in force in 2008.

Finland will have to take porpoise spotters on its fishing boats as of 2006, even though the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Juha Korkeaoja (Centre) says that he does not see any sense in the move.

An estimated three or four porpoises pass through Finnish waters each year. The winter ice means that the few that may be here go south, because they occasionally need to surface for air.

It is not yet clear how many porpoise spotters the EU will want Finland to have. Initial estimates are that seven or eight porpoise specialists would be assigned to Finland's trawler fleet.

When they start their work, the spotters will take part in fishing trips, look for any signs of porpoises, and check the contents of the catch.

In the past 50 years, only five porpoises have ever been ensnared in Finnish fishing nets.

The European Commission has estimated that the cost of professional spotters would be about EUR 500 a day - most probably at state expense.

News about the new profession and the apparently lucrative potential for earning money has been made public, but the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry says that there have been no applicants for the jobs, or for the preparatory training.

Porpoise spotters' jobs will not be open to just anyone. The qualifications, which have been enshrined in EU legislation, are quite strict. Hannu Lehtinen of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry says that there are few, if any, in Finland who would meet the qualifications.

Reading through the requirements, Lehtinen estimates that getting the qualifications would require several years of training.

"We will have to arrange some kind of education." Lehtinen believes that it will be necessary to scale back on the requirements.

Porpoise watchers will be expected to have sufficient experience in recognising species of small whales, and the ability to evaluate a porpoise's age and sex.

When the EU countries stop salmon fishing with drift nets, other means of catching salmon will taken into use. The use of long lines could increase, especially if restrictions on that method are eased.

More salmon will probably be available for coastal fishermen. On Tuesday Juha Korkeaoja took a positive view of the idea that the opening of the season for coastal fishing for salmon could be moved two or three weeks earlier. The EU rules will not lead to a complete stop in the use of drift nets in the Baltic, as Russia is expected to continue to use them.

If line fishing and coastal fishing do not increase much, there will be far more salmon returning to their spawning grounds, which would be good for the natural salmon stocks of the Tornio and Simo rivers.

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.3.2004