“We want to keep fishing,” says Anja Keuter, a spokeswoman for IJsselmeer fishermen in the Netherlands. Radio NOS 1 News. Her husband is a fisherman and her three sons want to be one too. Today sailing on one of the cutters. “So many areas have been closed to fishing by wind farms that we won’t have any more space soon. Both in the North Sea and in the IJsselmeer.”
In the part of the IJsselmeer where the protest takes place today, near Breezanddijk, fishing cutters are no longer welcome. The Fryslân wind farm can be seen from the dam. Recently there are 89 windmills in the water.
room for nature
Last year an agreement was reached on the division of the Dutch part of the North Sea. Various fisheries, nature and environment organizations, energy companies, seaports and the national government have been negotiating this for over a year. Cotter sees “a terrible little good in him.” “We just have to wait and see how that happens in the future.”
These agreements are necessary because wind farms will be built in the North Sea in the coming years. In addition, there should be space for nature reserves, oil and gas drilling, sailing cargo ships, and defense training areas. And fishermen want to be able to keep hunting.
The agreement provides for the allocation of the Council of Ministers 200 million euros. The bulk of that amount, 119 million euros, will go towards buying fishermen who want to stop and make fisheries more sustainable. This will result in a smaller and more sustainable fishing fleet.
According to Keuter, there is still little progress on this matter. “There is talk of saving money, but not a penny yet. There is no one yet who can say: I was bought. In that regard, it’s only been talk so far.”
