The documentary record of Baltic fishing in Poland is distributed across several regional state archives, municipal collections, and church records. These holdings cover vessel registration, fishing cooperative records, seasonal catch data, and the personal documentation of fishing families from different periods. Taken together, they form the primary archival basis for understanding coastal settlement patterns and the organisation of the fishing industry along the Polish Baltic.

The State Archive in Gdańsk

The Archiwum Państwowe w Gdańsku (State Archive in Gdańsk) holds the largest collection of maritime records in the region. As the successor to the Danzig city archives, it contains documents going back to the medieval period, including guild records from Danzig's Fishermen's Guild and harbour authority registers.

Among the most practically significant holdings for researchers of Baltic fishing history are:

  • Vessel registration books from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, listing the names, dimensions, and owners of registered Baltic fishing craft
  • Port authority records from the Free City of Danzig period (1920–1939), which document catch volumes, vessel movements, and licencing arrangements
  • Records of the post-war fishing cooperatives established in the Gdańsk region from the late 1940s onward
  • Cartographic materials showing the distribution of fishing settlements and seasonal camps along the Puck Bay shoreline

The State Archive in Koszalin

The Archiwum Państwowe w Koszalinie covers the western portion of the Polish Baltic coast, including the areas around Kołobrzeg, Darłowo, and Mielno. This archive is the principal repository for pre-war German-language records from the former Province of Pomerania (Provinz Pommern), which administered the western Baltic coast before 1945.

The German-language materials in Koszalin have been partially catalogued and are accessible to researchers. They include fishing society minutes, church records documenting the fishing population of coastal parishes, and local administrative correspondence concerning harbour maintenance and fishing disputes.

Language note

Pre-1945 materials in Koszalin and Słupsk archives are largely in German, with some documents in older scripts including Kurrent and Sütterlin. Researchers unfamiliar with these scripts may need specialist assistance. The archives themselves do not generally provide translation services.

The State Archive in Słupsk

The Archiwum Państwowe w Słupsku holds records relevant to the middle section of the coast, including the areas around Ustka — historically known in German as Stolpmünde — and Lębork. Ustka functioned as the port for Słupsk and was an active fishing harbour through the twentieth century.

The Słupsk archive holds records of the post-war Polish fishing cooperative in Ustka, which absorbed many of the new settlers who arrived after 1945. These cooperative records document how fishing was reorganised on a collectivised basis, including equipment allocation, quota arrangements, and the deployment of larger state-owned vessels alongside traditional small craft.

Seasonal and Customary Traditions

Beyond formal archival holdings, the coastal traditions of Baltic Poland are documented through ethnographic fieldwork carried out primarily in the 1950s and 1960s. The Polish Ethnographic Atlas project, coordinated through academic institutions, collected data on material culture and seasonal practices across Polish rural communities, including fishing settlements.

The documented traditions of the Polish Baltic coast include:

  • Seasonal herring fishing, which historically took place in autumn and early winter and involved temporary encampments on exposed sections of coast
  • Net-making and net-repair practices, which were family-based and followed seasonal rhythms tied to fish migration patterns in the Baltic
  • Boat-launching ceremonies and blessing rituals at the start of the fishing season, documented particularly in Kaszubian coastal communities around Puck and Jastarnia
  • Amber collection along the shore, which supplemented fishing income for communities on the eastern coast near the Curonian Lagoon approaches

Kaszubian Maritime Heritage

A distinct element within the broader Baltic heritage of Poland is the Kaszubian community, an ethnic group with its own language and cultural traditions centred on the area around Gdańsk and the Hel Peninsula. Kaszubian fishing families developed specific boat types suited to the shallow waters of Puck Bay, and their terminology for fishing equipment, weather conditions, and species differs from standard Polish.

The Kaszubian-language documentation of fishing practices — preserved in dialectal wordlists and in the oral records gathered by regional ethnographers — constitutes a distinct archival thread within the overall record of Baltic fishing in Poland.

The Muzeum Kaszubskie w Kartuzach (Kashubian Museum in Kartuzy) holds materials relevant to the intersection of Kaszubian cultural identity and maritime practice, including dialect dictionaries and ethnographic photographs.

Accessing the Archives

Polish state archives are generally open to researchers, subject to registration. Most require an advance appointment for accessing older or fragile materials. Remote access to catalogue descriptions has expanded in recent years through the Szukaj w Archiwach (Search in Archives) portal, which aggregates finding aids from state archives across Poland.

Last updated: May 2026. Archive access conditions may change; verify current requirements directly with the relevant institution.