Fish Farm “Tome”

Ivars Putviķis

Head of the fish farm “TOME”
Tel: +371 65038111; +371 29299916
E-mail: Ivars.Putviķis@bior.lv;
Address: Tome municipality, Ogre region, LV-5020

The largest salmon and sea trout smolt farm in Latvia and the Baltic Sea region. The main task of the Tome Fish Hatchery is to implement the national fish resources replenishment programme by rearing juvenile Baltic salmon and sea trout from the Daugava River. The farm releases around 550 000 salmon and sea trout smolts and 350 000 zander fingerlings into Latvian waters every year. Rainbow trout, sturgeon, European catfish and carp fingerlings are reared for pond keepers and private fish breeders. Broodstock of brook trout, zander, sturgeon (sterlet, Siberian sturgeon, bester) and European catfish are maintained and bred for future rearing.

In 1929 the farm was put into operation. A hatchery, an office building and three ponds were built to provide the farm with spring water. The fish hatchery was intended to artificially hatch and release salmon, brown trout, whitefish, bream and pike into Latvian waters. Already in the spring of 1930, the Tome fish farm released more than 3 000 000 fish larvae into Latvian rivers.In 1935, the Tome fish farm underwent a major expansion and, after reconstruction, was able to hatch up to 4 000 000 salmon and sea trout, 11 000 000 whitefish and roach eggs. After the reconstruction, the fish farm in Tome was one of the most modern and well-known fish farms in Europe.

Already in 1938, Tome, together with its subsidiaries, the fish farms Kārļi and Pelči, released 2 000 000 salmon, 3 200 000 trout, 20 000 brook trout, 5 600 000 lake trout and 2 500 000 traveller larvae into Latvian rivers and lakes. Salmon and crucian salmon were released into the Daugava, Gauja, Salaca and Venta rivers. Lake whitefish were introduced into lakes Višķu, Svente, Zīversa, Riča, Burtnieki, Alauksta, Usma, Sasmaka and Zebrene.

In the post-war years, nurseries reared summer-run Baltic salmon, whitefish, brown trout, brook trout, various species of sturgeon, zander and rainbow trout on an experimental basis.

From 1965 onwards, juvenile fish began to be fed with artificial feed, which made it possible to rear salmon and sea trout fry in the pools until the smoltification stage. Between 1979 and 1984, the hatchery underwent major expansion works, new roads were built and water was piped in from the Daugava River. The farm tripled its production capacity.

In the summer of 2009, the fish farm “Ķegums” was added to the Tome fish farm. The area of the fish farm covers 100,48 ha, including 29,5 ha of ponds.