Antoni Wysoki�ski
Sea Fisheries Institute, Świnoujście Branch, Plac Słowiański 11, 72-600 Świnoujście, Poland

Key words: Szczecin Lagoon, ichthyofauna, resources, management, young fish protection.

Abstract.
The inland waters of the Oder River estuary which include the Pomeranian Bay and the Szczecin Lagoon and the ichthyofauna found in them fall within the borders of both Poland and Germany. Fifty two percent of the area of the Szczecin Lagoon (910 km2) is within Polish borders and Fourty eight percent is within German borders. The ichthyofauna which is found in the Polish part of the Szczecin Lagoon consists of 37 freshwater and brackish water fish species, 5(6) migratory species and approximately 13 sea species which occur sporadically. Pikeperch, perch, roach and common bream are the basic commercial species and constitute 92% (including eel, this figure rises to 96%) of the total Polish lagoon catch which oscillates annually between 2,000 and 3,500 tons. Recently a shift in the cequilibrium between predatory fish and less commercially valuable non-predatory fish has been observed in which the latter group is on the increase. The reconstruction of both the resources management model and the fishery organization which was begun in 1990 and is ongoing are presented in this paper. These changes comply with the free market economy requirements which were introduced in Poland and simultaneously lead to a uniform method of fish resources management in both the Polish and German parts of the estuary. Currently, methods of protecting commercial fish, especially pikeperch and pike are problematic. Additionally, methods which have already been introduced to protect age 0 pikeperch fished with deepwater fyke-nets and age 1 and 2 pikeperch fished with gill-nets are presented.