2023-11-13 16:59:37
In the North Sea, you may have already observed them during a stay, some fishermen continue to use horses to catch shrimp. An ancestral tradition that is now facing the consequences of climate change, shrimp are becoming increasingly rare and the best catches take place later in the season.
Located between Koksijde and Nieuwpoort, Oostduinkerke is the last place in the world where shrimp is still fished on horseback. The technique has been the same for centuries, a draft horse pulls a chain across the sand, causing a vibration that causes the shrimp to jump into a taut net. But in recent years, the quantities of shrimp have only been decreasing, as Gunther Vanbleu, a horse fisherman, explains: “We have less shrimp, but we also have more squid and animal species that come from the Atlantic.“
In recent decades, the oceans have absorbed 90% of human-caused global warming. As a result, surface temperatures in the North Sea have risen by around 1 degree in thirty years, and this is disrupting the traditional seasons of the small horse fishing community.”Before, the best time to fish for shrimp was from September to December when it started to freeze. But now we’re getting the best takes later in the season.“
This change in temperatures therefore causes a modification of the ecosystem of our coastline. For marine ecology researcher at Ghent University, Ilias Semmouri, this is a worrying observation: “HAS This pace, many species cannot cope, they migrate or disappear. So we might end up with ocean deserts and those deserts don’t support any life.”
If there are fewer and fewer shrimp, that’s not the worst part. The quantity of cod in the North Sea has literally fallen since the 1980s. A decline that scientists also attribute to rising sea temperatures, but also to overfishing.
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