Fishermen from Den Oever, Texel, Edam-Volendam, Den Helder and IJmuiden have a fire letter signed which was presented to King on Monday morning. According to the fishermen, the fishing industry is being killed by an excess of rules. Erik Rotgans (40) from Den Oever is one of the signatories. “It’s sad that we treat each other like this.”
He is on the water 48 weeks a year: he leaves on Sunday, returns on Thursday or Friday with his catch in Den Oever. When NH Nieuws calls Erik Rotgans (40) on Monday, he is also on the water.
Yes, he signed the fire letter. And with him a few hundred Dutch, Belgian and German fishermen who fish in Dutch waters. The names of shipyards, fishing schools and traders are also listed under the letter. What Rotgans hopes to achieve with it? “That we can keep fishing, that’s what it comes down to.”
Due to increasingly strict nitrogen and environmental regulations, the survival of shrimp fishermen such as Erik Rotgans is threatened.
“I used to think I’d grow old on a cutter and my sons would take over. Now I wonder, do I even want to do it to them?”
He has already had a 70,000 euro nitrogen filter installed in his cutter, which also needs a few hundred liters of urea every week (“and you don’t earn it back, do you, if you install a new engine and it is more economical, you can still think: okay then”) and he already sieves the fish underwater from his shrimp catch, to prevent unwanted by-catch.
Close up
If the rules are further tightened, it may mean that he has to close his company. And that wouldn’t come easily to him. “I’ve always felt like I’m growing old on a cutter, and that my sons would take over if they wanted to. Now I wonder, do I even want to do it to those boys?”
He muses: “We are a fishing village, those boys walk through the harbor, scrape on board, they watch and do. That’s how I started myself, helping my father with unloading and other chores. That’s how you grow in the profession. me: ‘I’m not taking my sons, they’ll like it later…'”
What also frustrates him is the fact that every few years he has to reapply for a permit to fish in Natura2000 areas. “That’s funny, because you do exactly the same as those years before. And every time you have to prove that you do no harm”, Rotgans suddenly raises his voice emotionally.
Painful
He tells how painful it was to see how a mate had to scrap his cutter. “I went with him on the last trip. Only then do you notice the impact on the family. All people crying on the side. People have no idea about that.”
“For me, everything revolves around my cutter. We go on holiday with it and see how Sinterklaas arrives”
At Rotgans, too, everything revolves around his cutter, his ‘house’. “We also go on holiday to Terschelling. My children don’t want anything else. And with the Sinterklaas arrival we drink coffee on board and wait for Sinterklaas to arrive.”
“It is sad that we treat each other like this. Imagine that you have a company that your grandfather has already started, it puts your heart and soul and all your energy into it. Then someone says: you are not allowed to do that anymore. What are you doing then?”
He has a heavy head that the urgent letter to the king will make a difference. “There are so many people against us. They think we are a great destroyer.”