Netters

Netting is the collective term for all fishing techniques where the fishing gear is stationary in the water. The fishing technique is based on the assumption that the fish get caught in the nets. When talking about standing rig fishing, it usually refers to fishing with upright nets such as entangling nets and gillnets. In the North Sea and Wadden Sea, fishing is mainly for cod, sole, turbot, anglerfish, mullet, pikeperch, sea bass and plaice.

In the Netherlands, this type of fishing has become more prevalent in recent years. Beam trawling is a small-scale fishery operated by smaller vessels. Fishermen mainly use anchored bottom nets, which lie flat on the bottom most of the time and are only raised when the tide turns. This ensures that fish that mainly live on the bottom, such as sole and cod, are caught.
The nets are set up in the water using floats and a weighted line on the underside of the net, standing up and hauled in over time.

Sole is fished from April to November. Sea bass and mullet are also fished along the coast in summer. In winter, fishermen fish for cod close to shipwrecks and piers.

Netting is a selective form of fishing, using nets specially designed for a particular species and size of fish. This results in low bycatch of undersized fish, low fuel consumption and seabed disturbance.

Foto: © Ecomare, Oscar Bos