Crab fishing

The shrimp fishery (including shrimp fishing ) is a part of fishing and one of the oldest cultural techniques of fishing in the North Sea . North Sea prawns ( Crangon crangon ), which in northern Germany are known as crabs or North Sea crabs (as opposed to the term " crab " in the zoological sense), are caught in many coastal countries around the world and, because of their high protein content, used as food .

Crab cutter Ivonne from Pellworm fishing

shrimp

Object of interest: the North Sea shrimp ( Crangon crangon , dorsal)

The term shrimp covers different groups of crustaceans living or swimming in the bottom zone . The commonly used term does not include directly related cancers in one group, but there are exceptions. Lobsters , lobsters (for example " scampi " or Norway lobster ) and freshwater crayfish such as the Louisiana crayfish ( Procambarus clarkii ) are not included in the shrimp group.

North Sea Shrimp

The North Sea shrimp ( Crangon crangon ) is particularly important for the shrimp fishery in the North Sea . Their distribution area extends from the White Sea to the Atlantic coast of Morocco . It is the most widespread type of shrimp on the sandy and muddy coasts of the Eastern Atlantic and the only marine shrimp of fishing importance for Germany. Other small deposits can also be found in the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Their North Sea population is mixed in with an economically insignificant number of Crangon allmanni shrimp . Since 2003, individual specimens and later larger numbers of North Sea shrimp have been found near Reykjavík. It is assumed that the transport took place in the ballast water of ships and that the warming of the oceans now enables an increase in northern latitudes as well.

North Sea shrimp prefer river mouths as their habitat . They get along well with the strongly changing salt content. The reduced salt content even protects the animals against many marine fish species, and rivers also provide large amounts of nutrients . There is evidence that North Sea prawns have benefited from inadvertent fertilization of the sea with washed-in fertilizers (especially phosphate ). Before the winter cold, they withdraw into deeper water.

Deep sea shrimp

Arctic shrimp Pandalus borealis

Animals from the family of deep-water shrimp (Pandalidae) are the world's most fished shrimp. Anatomically, the scissors on the first pair of legs are missing , which is otherwise so typical of the decapod crabs. It is only present in a severely stunted form in some species. Many species of the genus Pandalidae carry luminous organs as adaptation to the deep-sea habitat . Pandalidae are of great economic importance.

The polar sea shrimp Pandalus borealis , Pandulus danae and Pandulus platyceros , which belong to the family Pandalidae , are found in the northern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific. The majority of the catch is made up of Pandalus borealis .

Pandalus platyceros (also California spot prawn or Alaskan prawn ) occurs mainly in the Pacific along the American coast from Unalaska Island , Alaska to San Diego .

The arctic shrimp is of great economic importance and has been caught as food off Norway and in other regions since the early 20th century. The term Greenland Shrimp is also often used in the food trade.

The species Plesionika edwardsi lives in the Mediterranean.

Arctic prawns of the genus Metapenaeus occur off India, Japan, Madagascar and South Africa. The species of the genus are around 20 cm long.

The distribution ranges from New England and the Canadian east coast through Greenland , Iceland , Svalbard , Norway and the North Sea to south into the English Channel . In the Pacific it can be found off Japan , in the Sea of Okhotsk , the Bering Strait and off North America south to Washington State . Pandalus borealis live at depths between 10 and 500 meters, over muddy soft floors, at water temperatures of 2-14 ° C . Arctic prawns can be up to 12 cm long and three to four years old.

Arctic prawns are caught not only as food , but also as a source of raw materials: Shrimp Alkaline Phosphatase (SAP) is an enzyme that is used in molecular biology and is obtained from Pandalus borealis . The chitin of the body armor can be processed into chitosan or glucosamine .

Crab fishing in the North Sea

Since the 17th century at the latest, the North Sea prawns have been caught in nets (also known as pushers) in the Wadden Sea . The commercial fishing of sand shrimp (North Sea shrimp) began on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein only after the middle of the 19th century in the course of industrialization. Only the railroad and new methods of preserving crustaceans made it possible to market the perishable food outside the immediate fishing grounds. Until then, it had only played a role locally. For a long time the fished crabs were only used as animal feed and fertilizer.

However, the "pioneers" of commercial shrimp fishing did not come from the west coast. The technique of trawling from boats spread from the Elbe and came from East Prussia .

On the Belgian coast, North Sea shrimp are still caught by fishermen on horseback for tourist purposes. On the flat North Sea beaches of the Belgian coast, cold-blooded animals pull the nets behind them. The catch is immediately cooked and sold on the beach, for example at the crab festival in Oostduinkerke / Flanders.

Crab trawlers have been fishing with a tree trawler since the end of the 19th century . Here, one is bottom trawl towed over the seabed. This technique was developed in Büsum . The catch in the cold months (around the end of November to February) is less or entirely because the North Sea prawns then withdraw into the deeper waters.

Fishing and fishing techniques

Shrimp cutter in Dorum-Neufeld

Cutter

On the North Sea, the type of boat, the shrimp cutter, developed as a flat-bottomed ship specially equipped for catching North Sea shrimp.

The cutters can go on fishing trips with cutter rigging (a mast with outriggers for mainsails , jib , jib and / or mainsail ) or traditionally as a gaff ketch . A marine diesel engine is used as the drive, which drives a propeller, which in most cases is shrouded. In the Wadden Sea and in the coastal waters, shrimp fishing is carried out by shrimp cutters that are around 14 to 20 meters long. The crabs are processed directly on board.

Tree trawler

Crabs are usually caught using two outriggers, on which the nets are lowered into the water from the side and then pulled over the seabed on rollers, thereby frightening and catching the crabs (basic net = "Kurre"). The Kurr is a bag-like bottom trawl which, in addition to catching North Sea shrimp, is also used for fishing flatfish (e.g. plaice or sole ) in the Wadden Sea.

A 9.5 m long spar , the so-called Kurrbaum , keeps the opening of the net open under water. The fish or shrimp trawler pulls the net over the seabed using skid-like shoes . The lower edge of the net carries a 10.6 m long line (lead clay) , which is weighted with lead knots and which has recently been replaced by a chain wrapped with old rope (Schlatting) . Each end of the Kurrbaum carries iron balls and, as a sliding shoe on the sea floor, an iron, the Kurrclaw. The bottom rope under the net opening weighs down the trawler and triggers vibrations when gliding over the seabed. As a result, the crabs and flatfish startle from the ground and can be caught by the net. The fishermen themselves fill the net; it requires 22 kg of yarn, and its length is 17 m.

Processing at sea

In Bangladesh , the prawns are not boiled and keep their whitish-transparent appearance

As a sensitive food, the shrimp have to be cooked on board. This takes place directly in the extracted seawater in a boiling kettle, which gives the animals their special aroma. The prawns look pink to red-brown after cooking and have curved towards the underside of the body. Bycatch incurred during processing is mostly thrown overboard, which is why shrimp cutters are usually followed by a swarm of gulls .

Situation of the shrimp fishery in Germany

Fishing fleet in the port of Büsum (2008)

In Germany, around 280 cutters still fish for shrimp in the North and Baltic Seas (93 of them in Schleswig-Holstein , the rest in Lower Saxony ). The cutters are stationed on the North Sea and Baltic Sea in small ports (cutter ports), which often also have a processing plant for the landed catch. The well-known cutter ports include Husum , Pellworm , Büsum (SH) and Dorum , Wremen , Greetsiel and Fedderwardersiel (NDS).

The volume of catches in the North Sea in 2005 was around 38,000 tons, which was a sharp increase compared to previous years (1990s: around 10,000 tons). This puts the shrimp fishery in third place among the North Sea fisheries. About 85% was provided by Germany and the Netherlands. There is no quota regulation in the European Union. The largest shrimp catching states are Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark.

Fishing areas

The shrimp cutters sailing under the German flag fish in the North Sea mainly in the coastal waters. Seaward of the 12-mile line is relatively little fished by German shrimp cutters, from 2007 to 2013 only around six percent of the shrimp fishery took place there. The fishing is strongest in the area of the Eider and Elbe estuaries, in the tidal basins off Büsum and in the Meldorfer Bucht and in the Osterems.

Over a third of the German shrimp fishery takes place in the areas of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea and Lower Saxony Wadden Sea national parks . That is why nature and environmentalists are repeatedly calling for fishing bans in these regions. The German shrimp fishermen have to accept restrictions due, among other things, to construction work for submarine cables for offshore wind farms . For example, the cable from the Riffgat wind farm near Borkum runs through the fishing grounds of some shrimp fishermen.

processing

After landing , the crabs are first bought by middlemen who sort the shrimp according to size by machine. During this processing step, the animals are preserved for the first time with table salt , benzoic acid and citric acid . Only the larger animals go on sale. Small animals are mostly sorted out on board.

In Germany, some of the crabs are sold unpeeled on site or in the coastal region ( Bremen , Hamburg , Lübeck , Kiel ). The largest part is sold to the processors, who for the most part promptly transport the crabs to North Africa ( Morocco and other Maghreb countries ). There the animals are trained by hand. Workers in these countries receive a fraction of the hourly wage of a European worker. The pulsed crabs are then re-imported and either marketed directly or processed further. It usually takes a week from catch to sale.

Catch stop 2011

In May 2011, the shrimp fishermen on the North Sea voluntarily stopped fishing for more than four weeks. Cutters of the producer groups from Germany and the Netherlands agreed not to expire until a purchase price for shrimps was negotiated, which should enable the fishermen to work economically. After more than four weeks, the fishermen agreed with the trade on a market price of 2.50 euros , which should increase by 10 cents a week to a kilo price of three euros. In addition, the catch was limited to 1500 kilos per cutter for the first week after the stop. The shrimp fishermen also wanted to draw attention to their work situation and the economic situation of the small businesses. The strike for better producer prices did not affect all shrimp fishermen. Some purchase companies guaranteed far higher prices than e.g. B. the market-defining Dutch customers. Out of solidarity, the fishermen who were not actually affected did not go to the North Sea to catch crabs.

The then Federal Minister of Agriculture, Ilse Aigner (CSU), announced that for 2011 the number of days of standstill with subsidies would be increased from 40 to 50 days. Lower Saxony's state government had promised to cover the costs of retrofitting the legally required electronic logbooks totaling 375,000 euros for all 125 shrimp cutters.

Producer Association of German Shrimp Fishermen (EzDK)

In May 2012, crab fishermen from more than 100 fishing companies met in Wardenburg in the Oldenburg district . First they signed a letter of intent to found their own producer group . They were supported by the then Agriculture Minister of Lower Saxony, Gert Lindemann (CDU).

In August 2012 around 120 shrimp fishermen from Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein joined forces. The producer company was founded in September 2012. 96 out of a total of around 160 professional fishermen had joined the company. In 2012, their catches totaled around 20 percent of the North Sea shrimp landed across Europe.

Philipp Oberdörffer, fisheries biologist and one of the four managing directors of the EzDK, sees a great benefit in founding the producer group: "We can live from our work again. (...) We had to bundle our strengths to secure our livelihoods. There was no alternatives. (...) We want to bring calm to the market and to balance out the fluctuations in annual yields. We want to create a situation with which fishermen, retailers and consumers are satisfied. " The main innovation is that the organized crop owners no longer conclude individual contracts with their customers as in the past. The individual contracts were terminated in favor of a uniform contract that the producer group will negotiate on behalf of all participating shrimp fishermen.

Producer group coastal fishermen of the Nordsee GmbH

Parallel to the establishment of the producer group of the German Krabbenfischer GmbH, 24 fishermen with 32 ships have come together in East Friesland and have merged to form the producer group coastal fisherman North Sea GmbH. In November 2013 they were recognized as an EU producer organization by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. The fishermen market their table shrimp catches through their organization in East Friesland, mainly to 2 regional shrimp marketers. They have remained true to their goal of supplying the regional East Frisian crab market.

Producer group of the coastal fishermen Tönning, Eider, Elbe and Weser wV

The EO-TEEW was established on October 9, 1995 by a document from the Minister for Nutrition, Forests and Fisheries of the State of Schleswig-Holstein (AZ: VIII 410 b / 18.3) within the framework of the EEC Regulations Nos 2939/94 recognized. There are a total of 32 fishing operations, with the exception of one Elbe fisherman, they are crab fishing operations that are located along the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein and the Wurster Land (Lower Saxony). You made the entrepreneurial decision for yourself to continue to organize yourself and to serve the market in your independent organization

Conservation and shrimp fishing

Most of the German crab fishing takes place in the Wadden Sea National Parks . Commercial shrimp fishing is permitted in seal and bird sanctuaries as well as in protection zone 1 (highest protection) of the national parks.

Within the 12 nautical mile zone , fishing is only allowed with vehicles up to 300 HP. A problem for nature conservationists and regional shrimp fishermen are the large, modern cutters (or trawlers ) that fish outside the Wadden Sea with heavy gear and powerful machines even in winter.

Regarding the regulation of the shrimp fishing, the national park laws honored the fact that it is a regional cultural technique that is carried out with relatively small cutters in a "sustainable manner". The shrimp fishermen are currently working to obtain the MSC certificate for ecologically sound fishing.

Bycatch

The bycatch of young fish is high in traditional prawn fishing using tree trawls. Many small fish and marine animals get into the net. They are thrown back into the sea quickly, but often do not survive there. The most important species in bycatch are plaice: almost a billion young plaice (8–30 percent of all young plaice) die in the European shrimp fishery. If they grew large, it is estimated that 12,000 tonnes more plaice would be caught in the North Sea.

That is why conservationists are calling for the use of selective fishing gear. Many small shrimp fisheries point to the high acquisition costs for new, thinner-meshed nets. Some cutters work with so-called "sieve nets" in the actual nets with which bycatch is to be reduced.

The nature conservation authority of Oregon developed a system to reduce bycatch together with the fishing fleet. This is a grid attached to the net entrance that reduces the bycatch of larger fish. It is suitable for shrimp trawlers that haul two nets (“double rigging”). On a “double rigger” the fishing gear is sometimes above the surface of the water for a while, causing the “Nordmøre grid” (conventional, square grid that plumbs fish up and out of the net) to spin and damage the net. ODF & W developed a cheaper, round grille. The measure, which has been required by law since 2002, has significantly reduced the bycatch of pike , sole and prickly pigs.

Crab processors

Since the beginning of the 1980s, the proportion of aquaculture-bred shrimp in global production has been increasing steadily. (Source: FAO based on data from the FishState Database)

A shrimp processing company in Germany is de Beer GmbH & Co. Krabbenhandels KG in Greetsiel, which is an East Frisian wholesale company with its own fleet. Other independent marketers of North Sea shrimp are the companies Stührk Delikatessen (Insolvent 2016), Gustav Rentel OHG, Krabben Kock Büsum (sold to Parlevliet & Van der Plas in 2015), Klaas Puul Germany and Siebrands Fischereibetrieb GmbH & Co. KG in Greetsiel. In the Netherlands, the company is sitting Heiploeg , the largest shrimp processors in Europe (since 2014 a subsidiary of Parlevliet & Van der Plas ), as well as no. 2 of the local market the company. Klaas Puul .

Web links

Commons : Crab Fishing - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Information on shrimp fishing from the Dutch organization ecomare
The last shrimp fishermen on horseback . RP-Online from June 18, 2010.
NDR "Leben am Meer" about crab fishing (no longer available as of January 4, 2018)
Lots of information and films on the conflict of use for crab fishing in the Wadden Sea National Park

Individual evidence

↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Fereidoon Shahidi, Jozef Synowiecki: Isolation and characterization of nutrients and value-added products from snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) and shrimp (Pandalus borealis) processing discards. In: J. Agric. Food Chem. , Vol. 39 (8), 1991, pp. 1527-1532, doi : 10.1021 / jf00008a032
↑ History of Crab Catching ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Paragraph: Beam trawler fishing for crabs ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . PDF, accessed August 25, 2012@1@ 2

^ Wursterland, cutter ports Dorum and Wremen . Retrieved August 25, 2012

^ Crab catching study . PDF. Retrieved August 25, 2012

↑ ^a ^b Helga Kuechly, Viola Liebich, Hans-Ulrich Rösner: Where the crabs are fished - Spatial distribution and temporal development in the use of the Wadden Sea and the adjacent North Sea by the German crab fishery from 2007 to 2013. (PDF) (No longer online available.) WWF Germany , March 2, 2016, pp. 4–5 , archived from the original on June 19, 2016 ; accessed on June 30, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

↑ Crab fishing in the protection zone. WWF Germany , March 22, 2016, accessed June 30, 2016 .

↑ North Sea: WWF calls for a ban on crab fishing in the inner Wadden Sea. In: shz.de. Retrieved June 30, 2016 .

↑ North Sea: Federal government plans year-round fishing bans. In: ndr.de. Retrieved June 30, 2016 .