It undoubtedly helps being at the well-connected heart of a fish-hungry part of the world and to have a centuries-old trading and seafaring traditions behind you.
As far as fishing is concerned, Holland’s influence extends a long way – and those trading traditions stretch a lot further than just around the North Sea. After all, the foundations of Amsterdam are reputed to be largely hundreds of years’ worth of herring bones, and the city owes at least part of its wealth to centuries of the herring trade.
This time, to produce a (mainly) Dutch issue of Hook & Net, we’ve teamed up with the organisers of the Holland Fisheries Event, an exhibition held every second year in Urk – a place with its own fair share of fishing tradition.
There are reasons why this modest-sized town more than an hour’s drive from the sea is one of the centres of the Dutch fishing industry.
Let’s just say that while today Urk is a town by the edge of a lake on one side and potato fields stretching away into the distance on the other, a few decades ago it was an island surrounded by a sea full of herring.
Every couple of years the Dutch industry gathers in Urk for this exhibition, and as an increasing number of companies from other parts of Europe are taking part, we thought we’d join in.
We’re sharing a stand practically by the door with the guys from Fiskerforum. So if you’re in Urk for the Holland Fisheries Event, come and say hello.
