Living in the Baltic Sea

Habitat
This predator will inhabit any body of water that contains fish but prefers shallow vegetated areas. Usually the Pike lives a solitary life where it remains stationary in the water lurking at a suitable hiding place before striking their prey.
Food
The Pike is a voracious hunter with few natural enemies. They have a distinctive habit of catching its prey sideways in the mouth, immobilizing it with its sharp backward pointing teeth, and then turning the prey headfirst to swallow it. They feed on fish, also smaller pike, frogs, insects, leeches and even small birds.

Spawning
Age: Female 2 - 5 years old, male 1 - 3 years old
Season: March - April
Number of eggs: 200 000

The embryos stay glued to vegetation the first 5 - 16 days, depending on the water temperature. Under natural circumstances the survival from free-swimming larvae to a 75 mm Pike is around 5 %. One reason for this is the Pike’s cannibalistic nature.

Human impact and Status
The Pike is a popular food fish and is fished both commercially and by sports fishermen. Because of pollution, overfishing and lack of suitable places for reproduction, the numbers of Pike have decreased substantially. Many of their habitats have been destroyed. It is suggested for the whole Baltic Sea area, to limit fishing to fish that are between 40-75 cm. The reason being that females larger than 75 cm should be put back is because they produce larger eggs, which produce larger larva that are more likely to survive. CLOSE