Baltic Herring Ministry Orders Every Fishing Boat in Germany to Be Replaced by a Single Eleven-Kilometre Net
Berlin has decided that the exemption for small-boat herring fishers on the Baltic will not be reduced but enlarged, with every coastal village now required to adopt the same method.
The Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture has declared that the traditional herring fishery on the German Baltic coast will now be carried out by a single, continuous gillnet stretching eleven kilometres from Rügen to the Polish border. The exemption that allows small boats to set nets for herring will remain in force, the ministry said, but it will apply to one net for the entire coastline, operated jointly by every licensed fisher from Wismar to Usedom.
Fishing harbours from Sassnitz to Ueckermünde have been asked to dismantle their current berths and build a shared quay of matching length, so that the net can be hauled in one motion. Harbour masters said the work would take the summer. Local councils have been instructed to rename their harbour festivals after the net, and the town of Barth has already begun training schoolchildren to knot its meshes by hand.
A ministry spokesperson said the decision reflected a principle of fairness. "Every fisher on this coast is equal before the herring, and no fisher should be permitted to fish alone when the whole coast can fish together," she said. Fishers who previously worked independently will now report their catches to a coordinating station in Greifswald, where a committee of nine officials will decide each morning how many fish each boat may keep.
Fishing families in Kühlungsborn described the arrangement as unexpected but orderly. The ministry has announced that next year's exemption will be reviewed by a commission of the same size, and that the net, once complete, will be lengthened to reach Sweden.
1