Rules for catching fish in marine and coastal waters
Do you own a fishing company and do you fish in marine and coastal waters? In the Netherlands you must comply with a number of rules. There are rules on for example:
- fishing vessels
- what species of fish and how many fish you are allowed to catch
- licences, permissions, and dispensations
Mandatory notification
Do you plan to start a fishing company? If so, you have to notify the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA, in Dutch). The NVWA checks the safety of fish and fish products, and monitors fish catch quotas.
Registering a fishing vessel and applying for a licence
If you are going to fish at sea, you must comply with the rules for fishing vessels and register your fishing vessel in the Dutch Register of Fishing Vessels (NRV). By registering your vessel, you apply for the fishing licence you need.
Licence, permission, and dispensation for fishing
You may need to apply for a licence, permission, dispensation, or authorisation.
If you want to fish at sea you need fishing authorisation (vismachtiging). Which fishing authorisation you need (in Dutch) depends on when and where you want to fish, and which species you are going to fish for. You can apply for fishing authorisations to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) (in Dutch).
You need a licence to fish for shrimp. There are different shrimp licences for coastal waters and the Fishing Zone (Visserijzone). Which of these permits you need for shrimp fishing (in Dutch) depends on the fishing location and on the fishing gear you use.
Do you want to fish with fixed gear? Then you need a licence or a rental agreement. You must also meet the conditions for fishing with fixed gear. For instance, you cannot fish with fishing gear that injures the fish. Your license specifies where and with what gear you may fish.
If you want to fish with trawl nets in the Wadden Sea, Oosterschelde, Voordelta or on the Eems-Dollard, you need to request permission in writing from RVO (in Dutch).
In some situations you need dispensation to fish in coastal waters. For example, if you fish with adapted eel fishing gear during the closed period. You apply for dispensation for coastal waters to RVO (in Dutch).
You need permission to fish professionally on the Eems-Dollard. You can apply for this permission to RVO (in Dutch).
You need a license or a rental agreement to fish for shellfish such as cockles, mussels, and oysters (in Dutch).
Fish quotas
Every year, the European Union sets the quantity of fish that can be caught according to species. This is known as the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and is divided into quotas (in Dutch) for the various EU countries.
You must comply with the fish quota by:
- keeping to your quota
- submitting your catch records
Is the fish quota exceeded? Then fishing is no longer allowed in specific regions.
Contingents (fishing rights)
A contingent is a part of the quota that is allocated to you. With a contingent (in Dutch) you are allowed to catch a certain quantity of fish (fishing rights). It is linked to your fishing vessel. Do you temporarily not have a vessel? You can set your contingent aside for future use, you can rent it out, transfer it to another vessel of your own, or transfer it to a vessel that belongs to another fishing company. To do so you must make a contingents transaction through RVO (in Dutch).
Submitting your catch records
You must be registered with RVO as the master of a fishing vessel to submit your catch records (in Dutch). That is information on the quantity of fish you caught and where you caught the fish. You must also submit information such as the port of departure and the port of return. There are 2 systems to submit your catch records:
- Are you the master of a fishing vessel smaller than 12 meters (in Dutch)? You must supply this information through the E-lite log for small fishing vessels (E-Lite logboek kleine vissersvaartuigen, in Dutch). You do this within 24 hours of returning to port. Additional conditions apply for a vessel between 10 and 12 metres.
- Are you the master of a fishing vessel larger than 12 meters (in Dutch)? Then you keep records of your fishing trips in the electronic logbook on board your vessel. Which data you need to provide depends on your fishing trip.
Closed regions and closed periods
Several nature reserves in the North Sea are (partly) closed for fisheries. There are also some periods when it is forbidden to fish for a certain species of fish. These are so-called ‘closed periods’. Additional rules apply to the following fish species:
Landing and unloading fish
A landing obligation applies to all species subject to a fishing quota. This means that you must land all of the fish you catch, including bycatch. You may not discard any bycatch. This also applies to undersized (below minimum conservation reference size) fish. This is called the landing obligation. There are some exceptions for certain species (in Dutch), for instance if they have a high survivability. Did you catch undersized fish of a species that is not regulated by the landing obligation? You must discard these; you are not allowed to land them.
Do you want to land, unload, or tranship fish? The List of designated ports (in Dutch) shows the ports, places, and times where this is allowed.
Landing contingents
Did you catch too much fish of a certain species regulated by the landing obligation? And is your contingent (fishing rights) insufficient because of this catch or bycatch? You must pay landing contingents to RVO (in Dutch) for this fish species.
Weighing fish on board
Do you want to weigh the caught fish on board? For this, you need a weighing dispensation. This dispensation is valid for 2 years. You must keep the dispensation on board and you must comply with the conditions of the weighing dispensation. You can request the ‘Weighing on landing’ dispensation (Ontheffing wegen bij aanlanding, in Dutch) from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).