A church in Rotterdam last night hosted a Christmas meal for some of the city’s most deprived citizens, with turbot supplied by Dutch and Belgian fishing vessels, and cooked by some of the crews.
According to Job Schot who skippers the Belgian flagged Job Senior Z-201, there is plenty of frustration over the turbot quotas that were set more than ten years ago as a mechanism to prevent Spanish vessels from fishing in the North Sea on what were then non-quota species.
‘That’s a quota that was set almost fifteen years ago for political reasons, but it’s reduced every year as a precautionary measure, as ICES states that there isn’t enough data on turbot. This is their standard practice, cutting quotas by 20 or 25% on a precautionary basis, which is guesswork. But there’s plenty of turbot, especially in the north, and it’s wrong to be discarding it,’ he said.
‘There are boats discarding turbot worth €10,000 to €20,000 every trip.’
He commented that one of the biggest paradoxes of the CFP is that they are required to keep undersized discards on board, while being forced to discard high-value, marketable fish.
Fishermen from all over Holland involved in the EMK movement came together to donate a box of turbot each to the Victory Outreach church in Rotterdam to provide a Christmas dinner for some of the city’s homeless.
They contacted Urk auction to find a company to fillet the fish, and Urk company Altrea Marea filleted around 300 fresh turbot, while VCU contributed money to buy smoked salmon.
Arie de Visser came from Wieringen and Onne Nienhuis and his father came from Zoutkamp to cook the fish at Victory Outreach, along with more helpers from Urk.
‘This is in one of Rotterdam’s most deprived districts, well known for high levels of homelessness and drug use. We all decided that this was something we could do to help give less fortunate people a better Christmas, so each boat put in a box of turbot and between 500 and 600 people came for a meal at Victory Outreach,’ Job Schot said.
‘It was a heartwarming experience. The intention was to make a statement that there is not enough quotas – but also to do something for our poorer neighbours.’
