The father of Ron Haasnoot, owner of fish supplier Wout Taal, is in Denmark. To buy herring – the Dutch herring fleet disappeared ten years ago. Now it’s just waiting there, until the fish is fat enough and can be jawed on the spot. Hollandse Nieuwe must have a fat percentage of at least 16 percent.
Ron Haasnoot sighs. Normally, the herring already reaches that fat content in May. “They started looking just as early as last year. But they were hard to find or so thin,” he says in their office in Scheveningen. “The water has been too cold in the spring, the herring has not yet fed itself.”
It is a few days before the first barrel of herring would be auctioned in Scheveningen, because that has been postponed to June 22. Flag day, next Saturday, will continue. ‘Zeefest’ is written on the poster near the statue of the Fisherman’s Wife on the boulevard, announcing all the bands that will be performing.
Fish caught, bread on the shelf
Traditionally, Vlaggetjesdag was the start of the herring season. When the Scheveningen cutters returned from the sea, the quays were full of people who wanted to taste the fresh ‘green’ herring. In the 1950s, more than 50 percent of the total Dutch herring supply went through Scheveningen. Those who were lucky caught enough herring for a year in one month. It meant that there was bread on the table again.
But there is little sign of a ‘fest’ in the harbor now. Not only because the arrival of the Hollandse Nieuwe has been delayed, but also because these are lean years for the other fishermen. Catch quotas and laws and regulations to protect nature reserves in the North Sea, among other things, make it more difficult to fish. Many fishermen have given up.
You get tired of it. Now you have to fish in squares again. As if the shrimp say: I’m lying there on that line
Ari Roger shrimp fisherman
You can see it at the Eerste Haven. The wholesalers, who mainly trade in frozen fish, are doing well. But a gym has come along with the smokehouse of Roeleveld and the fish shop of Simonis. On the side of the Buitenhaven, next to the Zeemanshuis, is a shiny new Marina Beach hotel. The Tweede Haven has increasingly become a marina and pleasure harbour. You can rent fast boats and power boats. You will not only find restaurants on the short side, but also on the quays. And flats have sprung up on all sides.
Ask the brothers Arie, Barry and Rien Rog. They arrive with the SCH-10 Drie Gebroeders, after four days at sea. “We are the last shrimp cutter,” says Arie. Ships of a shipping company still sail under Scheveningen flag, but the only other remaining family business has put its ship up for sale. “Any fisherman who goes off doesn’t come back,” he says.
Last shrimp cutter
They invite you for coffee on board, they have to wait for the person who will unload their shrimps. And they are not in their normal place – which has been taken for The Ocean Race, one of the largest sailing competitions in the world, which visited Scheveningen on Sunday.
That is also Scheveningen. A few years ago, the municipality focused on water sports events that have a ‘festival character’, are ‘a crowd puller’ and generate ‘economic returns’. Just as Scheveningen is to become a four-season seaside resort, where the beach and harbor have something to offer all year round. “The Hague, city by the sea” is the motto.
Also read this article: All the large cutters in Den Helder were bought up, so the fish auction closes
But fishing remains the main economic user of the port, became part of a ‘port covenant’ recorded three years ago. When it seemed at the beginning of this year that the municipality wanted to get rid of its 35 percent share in the fish auction, said the alderman that it is ‘both culturally and economically linked to Scheveningen’. When asked, the municipality repeats that “fish belongs to Scheveningen, and we want to keep that as The Hague”.
There will be a study into the future of the port and the future of the fishing industry. The number of ships has shrunk: sailing areas have become smaller due to the demarcation of nature reserves, the construction of offshore wind farms and Brexit, fuel prices are high, pulse fishing has been banned. In Den Helder, the owners of all the large cutters decided to let the government buy them out, after which the fish auction closed at the end of last year.
mobility scooter
“There used to be thirty cutters here, now a handful. They were all family businesses,” says Arie Rog. The three brothers are concerned. New laws and regulations are coming again, even the major shipping companies are affected, they say. Arie: “You get tired of it. Now you have to fish in squares again. As if the shrimp say: I’m lying there on that line.”
Says Barry: “In Germany or Denmark, the view of fishing is very different.” Arie: “If you see what some political parties think… They want us gone.”
They have no successors, their sons are in the fish business, but at the wholesaler across the harbour. They know guys who went to work for the HTM tram company or as prison guards.
Piet Pronk arrives on the quay in his mobility scooter. From his flat he saw the Drie Gebroeders mooring. Barry hands him a bag of fresh shrimp.
In the past, says Pronk, “there was a lot of activity here. Most came in on Fridays, then it was really busy”. He has been ashore for eleven years now. He laughs at the memory: “Then you were gone for three weeks, but if you came in first with the herring, you got the best price for it.”
Also read this article: ‘A bottom fishing ban just about means the end of the shrimp sector’
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper on June 12, 2023.