The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

Fishery”, was a world of its own with strict regulations and membership.
The cod and haddock fishery, often referred to as the “IJsland en
Doggevaart”, was not formally organized. It was concentrated in
Maassluis, Vlaardingen and Zierikzee. The third branch of Dutch
fisheries was the “kust- en steurvisserij” based on flatfish and ungutted
salted herring (to be smoked ashore). Fishing villages along the sandy
coast of Holland—like Scheveningen, Katwijk, Noordwijk or Egmond
—were engaged in these activities and also had their own organizations.
Though not catching fish but sea mammals, the whaling industry has to
be mentioned as a fourth branch operating in the Northern Seas. The
centres of this industry were mainly the areas around Amsterdam,
Zaandam and Rotterdam, and they had no links whatsoever with the
other three branches.
In broad terms this picture pertained from the late Middle Ages until
well into the nineteenth century. Great changes have taken place since
then. Some of these changes were international in character: the
introduction of propulsion by steam and motor engines, new types of
vessels and fishing nets. Other changes bear a Dutch hallmark. Great
infrastructural works—e.g. the construction of the two canals, a railway
track on the main islands of Zeeland and later the Afsluitdijk (1932) and
finally the so-called Deltawerken (1958-1975) —had a great impact
upon Dutch fishing communities. New fishing towns came into being
such as IJmuiden, Den Helder, Urk and Stellingdam, while
Scheveningen greatly expanded. Others, such as Vlaardingen, Maassluis
and Noordwijk, disappeared. The Zuyder Zee was transformed into an
inland lake with eel becoming the main catch. At the beginning of this
period new legislation was passed. In 1857 liberal legislation declared all
existing rules, bounties, protections and prohibitions obsolete. Any kind
of fishing activity became free, creating, for instance, new opportunities
for the villages along Holland’s beaches, which from 1751 had not been
permitted to take part in the gutted salt herring fishery. At the end of the
period—since 1983—the catch restrictions and scrap regulations of the
European Union figure prominently. Whaling in the Arctic waters had
already come to an end around 1800 and was only temporarily resumed
in the Antarctic waters from 1946 to 1963. 178
178 Bruijn, ‘Een verdwijnende bedrijfstak; Bruijn, ‘De Nederlandse Maatschappij’.
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