For Dutch fishermen it is uncertain what Brussels will decide regarding accepting and continuing pulse trawling. Technical reports show positive aspects such as a lower CO2 emission and less damage to the seabed. For the Dutch fishermen it is clear that the innovative fishing method is a step towards a future of sustainable fishing. They still believe in pulse trawling, reports Willem den Heijer.
The Dutch fishing sector has no idea why French organisation Bloom is against pulse trawling and why a few groups of French as well as British small scale fishermen are concerned about overfishing through this technique. Like the British and the French fishermen, the Dutch have to keep to their quota limits for plaice and sole, and are not catching more sole. But by using lighter pulse gear with a lower towing speed and less horsepower, the sole catch rate is the same as with heavy beam gear at more than seven knots.
In addition, the Dutch fleet was not able to use their entire sole quotas for the last two years and the same applies to plaice.
It seems that Bloom’s distribution of fake news is successful. A lot of people have doubts about electric fishing. So far fishermen have not find any species or organisms which showed damage or show signs of electrocution. Species such as short nose seahorses, whelks, scallops, shorthorn sculpin and pipefish are all coming on deck alive. A number of these are quite vulnerable, such as pipefish and seahorses, but apparently they are able to survive in the trawl, and they also survive the low-level electric pulses. The bigger the body of the fish, the greater the reaction of the fish. According to reports from ICES, Dutch fishermen are not devastating marine life with electric shock fishing.
A new rumour which is based on wrong assumptions is the that Dutch pulse trawlers have been operating in the Dogger Bank area. A few Dutch vessels with pulse gear licences change over from pulse trawling to twin rigging and beam trawling in order to focus on catching plaice and turbot in the Dogger Bank area where there is hardly any sole. When fishing around the Dogger Bank these vessels use other methods.
Some smaller pulse trawlers are in summer months change over to shrimp trawling or twin-rigging on nephrops. None of pulse trawling’s opponents have been able to show evidence that fish is being electrocuted or that Dutch trawlers have been pulse trawling around the Dogger Bank.
