Fishing industry in Switzerland

Landlocked Switzerland supports a small commercial fishing industry in its many large lakes. About 200 fishermen nationally ply them in small boats, supplemented by fish farmers who largely raise trout and some carp. The former catch primarily perch and whitefish, with pike, lake trout and Arctic char making up significant portions of the country's annual catch. Angling is also popular, while fish processing is marginal, largely limited to making fish oil for the country's drug industry. While some of the Swiss catch is exported, mostly to neighboring countries, the country runs a large trade deficit in fish and fish products, with imports serving most of the market, largely in the food sector, as tastes have shifted towards seafood. Within Switzerland, the French-speaking population consumes 60 percent of the fish, three times its share of the population. Switzerland's largest lake, Lake Geneva, shared with France, is also its most productive fishery, providing a fifth of the total catch, including almost half its perch. Lake Zürich, fifth largest by area, is the second most productive Swiss fishery, with the largest share of the country's whitefish catch. Lake Neuchâtel produces the largest portion of lake trout, and small Lake Sempach is fourth in whitefish. The smallest Swiss lake that supports a commercial fishery is Lake Hallwil. Fish have been an important part of the Swiss diet since at least the Middle Ages; by the late 17th century catches in Lake Geneva were being strictly regulated. Today the cantons are the primary fishing regulators, with federal law setting the guiding principles; the large lakes that Switzerland shares with its neighboring countries are managed by international commissions. The total number of fishermen has declined in the late 20th and early 21st centuries along with catches, a phenomenon the fishermen attribute to the country's success in reducing pollution in its lakes, to the point that aquaculture now accounts for the majority of the industry's output.