katso raportti - Etelä-Karjalan kalatalouskeskus ry

SUMMARY
During our one week excursion we visited the Dutch fishing sector. We got acquainted with the Dutch professional
fisheries (inland and marine), the fishing trade, the Dutch fish auction system, fish processing,
crayfish and shellfish farming, fish tourism, fisheries research and fisheries policy. Twenty three fisheries
entrepreneurs and experts from the Eastern Finland Fishery group participated in the trip. The trip was
organized by the South – Karelian Fisheries Centre.
On Monday we visited the province of Zeeland. We visited the burbot fish farm ‘Seafarm’, the blue mussel
farm Neeltje Jans and crayfish, crustaceans, oysters and shellfish dealers Verwijs Crayfish Park, De Meulemeester
and Le Petit Pecheur in Yerseke. We also had a boat trip with a crayfish fisherman at the lake
Veerse Meer.
On Tuesday we visited the Dutch Fish Product Board in The Hague and the fishing harbor and fish auction
in Scheveningen We visited fish and crustacean dealer WG den Heijer, fish smokehouse Roeleveld,
North Sea herring dealer Den Dulk and fish shop and restaurant Simonis.
On Wednesday, we visited the inland fisheries fish auction of Urk. We learned about the lake IJsselmeer
fisheries and the zander fisheries certification "Zuiderzeezilver 'project. We also had a boat trip with a local
professional fisherman from the port of Stavoren to the Afsluitdijk.
On Thursday we were in the province of North Holland. We visited the harbor of Den Helder, Willemsoord.
We got acquainted with Kees Groot’s mussel larvae catch project and we had a boat trip at the
Waddensea with the nature and fishing based tourism company of Jan Rotgans. In the afternoon we visited
the fishing harbor of Den Oever and the professional fishing equipment store CIV.
On Friday we visited the fishing harbor of IJmuiden and the Dutch Fisheries Research Centre IMARES.
We got acquainted with the PEFA internet fish auction system. We visited Seafood Parlevliet and the Atlantic
pelagic fishing trawler ‘Cornelis Vrolijk’.
On Saturday we visited the fishing village of Egmond aan Zee, where we had stayed for a week. We went
to the Royal Dutch Lifeboat Institute (KNRM), the lighthouse, an 1800s beach fishing boat, and we visited a
local fisherman who showed us his fishing and fish smoking methods.
During the trip, we got a lot of new ideas, practices, procedures and new contacts. The largest differences
between the Netherlands and Finland in the fisheries sector are the higher volumes of fish catches
and customer numbers. Logistics and wholesale trade and exports are at a very high level. Dutch entrepreneurship
and networking in the field is common and easy, because the distances are short, and cooperation
seems to work. Problems related to the Dutch fishing sector are over-exploitation of fish stocks
and the large amount of professional fishermen. Water quality problems are also common in the Netherlands.
In Finland the situation is reversed. As the Eastern Fishery Group activator Pekka Sahama said in his
interview in the Dutch Journal of Fisheries ‘Visserijblad’, "There are too many fish and too few fishermen in
Finland" (see appendix 2).
We would like to thank our Dutch partners for their time, their enthusiasm and the Dutch hospitality and
openness that we have received!
This project was partly funded by the European Fisheries Fund (EFF). - The EU investing in sustainable fisheries.