Shrimp fishing is carried out along the coast of the North Sea and the Wadden Sea.

Shrimp is fished all year round, but the fisherman catches shrimp mainly in spring and autumn.

Fishing technique
Shrimp are caught using the principle of beam trawling but with significantly less heavy fishing gear so that there is little to no bottom disturbance. The shrimp are startled using a roller rope, a rope with round blocks.

The caught shrimp enter sieve trays on board. Bycatch is separated from the shrimp here. This bycatch, such as jellyfish and starfish, are thrown back overboard as soon as possible. The sieving method is very effective: between 90 and 95 percent of bycatch is thrown overboard alive, and shells and stones are also removed. The shrimps are then boiled on board for 5 minutes, which has a disinfecting and preserving effect. The shrimp changes colour during cooking, from translucent grey to pink. After cooking, the shrimp are put into plastic bags and stored in the refrigerated hold (at about 2°C). The chilled catch arrives at the fish auction shortly afterwards. Shrimp fishing is mainly day fishing.

The purchased shrimp are peeled by the trader; manually and then mainly outsourced to low-wage countries where the same hygienic requirements apply as in the Netherlands and returned by truck to the Netherlands or the shrimp are peeled by a shrimp peeling machine. The shrimp peeling machine which was created by Heiploeg and is the only one in use.