On a boat searching for anchovies

From May through early July you can take a boat tour to the fishing weir inside the coast of Bergen op Zoom. You can witness how anchovies are caught. Using screens that stretch over kilometers, the so-called ‘weirs’ (weren in Dutch), which are in a V shape directed towards the tide, the fish is led to the hoop net and harvested at low tide. The boat tours to the fishing weir combined with an Eastern Scheldt tour take 5 hours. It will take you to the Zeeland Bridge and along the sandbanks to spot seals and porpoises.

 

A special anchovy fishing method called the fishing weir has been in use inside the coast of Bergen op Zoom since 1530. A weir consists of two rows of wooden stakes stuck in the seafloor over a distance of 800 to 1000 meters. The anchovies entering the V-shaped weir sense the vibrations caused by the water flowing through the wooden stakes and stay within the weir. It guides them straight to the narrow trap opening at the end of the weir, the ‘weir trap’.


Initially, the fishing weir was managed by a number of fishing families. Towards the end of the 19th century it became open to the free market although it remained a small industry. The three remaining weirs are still owned by a single fishing family: the Van Dorts from Bergen op Zoom. They still catch anchovies according to the old tradition. Since 2014, this method has also been used to catch garfish, mackerel and herring. The Stichting Behoud Weervisserij Foundation was established in 1997 to protect this fishing method as a cultural heritage. In 2012, restoration of the weirs began, which included training of the fishermen and development of tourism. In mid-2018, the craft of ‘weir fishing’ has been included officially in the Inventaris Immaterieel Erfgoed Nederland or Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands.