North Sea shrimp
The North Sea shrimp fishery is, socio-economically, one of the most important fisheries in the North Sea. In terms of volume, the North Sea shrimp catch represents 4 percent of the total global catches in the coldwater shrimp and prawn segment.
In 2017, more than 25,936 MT were produced, with more than 50 percent of the volume coming from the Netherlands, 34 percent from Germany, and 6 percent from Denmark.
Overall catches have been dropping over the years, having experienced a decline of over 30 percent since 2007. Specifically, volumes from the Netherlands dropped by 26 percent from 2016 to 2017, after reaching a peak of 23,565 MT in 2014. Germany also reported a drop of 36 percent since 2015. This is mostly due to the variability in seasonal and spatial distribution of the shrimp, as well as the abundance of natural predators, the larger gadoids. In 2018, however, catches improved due to warm weather, which also resulted in a price drop.
The North Sea shrimp fishery supports an international fleet of approximately 560 vessels, consisting of 205 German, 200 Dutch, 27 Danish, 29 Belgian, 44 French, and 54 U.K. shrimpers. Dutch, German and Danish beam trawler fleets within the length category of 10-30 meters cover most of the landings (95 percent). The U.K. and Belgium also provide some marginal volumes.
