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A WASTE OF TIDE “Fishing for Anchovy in the Netherlands?” “Isn’t Anchovy this little fish from the Mediterranean?” Fisherman Cor van Dort has seen many surprised faces over the years. More surprised faces from customers in the shop; “No Anchovy today?” “You didn’t catch any?” For generations his and other families have been fishing for Anchovy in the Oosterschelde near the town of Bergen op Zoom. Unlike other fishermen Cor van Dort is not hunting the fish, he’s waiting for them. Twice a day at low tide he sails towards his funnel shaped trap on the edge of a sandbank. Anchovy likes the shallow warm waters near these sandbanks. With the low tide the fish are, if Cor has a lucky day, caught within his funnel, of which the arms of can stretch over a kilometre. The current of the low tide takes them in further and further. In the short season he can catch a 1000 Kg of Anchovy per tide, sometimes none…or as Cor calls it: “a waste of tide”. There used to be many other fishermen in this area using the same method of fishing but nowadays Cor shares these waters with only one remaining colleague.
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