Belgian fishermen land record catch of waste

This is a tripling of the amount of waste compared to 2020, as it turned out on Monday during a visit by Minister of the North Sea Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD) to the fish auction in Zeebrugge.

Fishing for Litter is voluntary. The fishermen do not throw the waste that ends up in their nets back overboard, but drop it in a big bag. Once back on the quay, the bag is weighed and registered and the contents are moved to the container park. The fishermen can also leave the waste in other European ports that participate in the project.

Fishermen make efforts

In our country, Fishing for Litter started in 2016. In 2017, Belgian fishermen landed 2 tons of waste. That number rose year after year, only to hit 65 tons of garbage last year. The number of participating ships also increased from 23 to 37 in one year.

“It shows that our fishermen are committed to keeping our North Sea clean. I want to thank them for their efforts,” said Minister Van Quickenborne. But we should not rest on our laurels,” he warns. “What they fish for is only a small part of the waste in our North Sea. Society as a whole must realize that dumping waste is not done.”

App for waste type

The minister points to the focus on awareness raising and communication for the significant growth. The Rederscentrale, which is coordinating the project, also launched a smartphone application for the participating fishermen. This enables them to identify efficiently and without much loss of time what type of waste they will bring ashore where and when.

“Our aim is to motivate the majority of the fleet in the short term to consistently take waste on board during every sea voyage and to register this correctly,” says Sander Meyns, Deputy Director of the Rederscentrale.