The gold of the North Sea
The north and its fish sandwiches are inseparable. Depending on taste and season, topped with a lettuce leaf, delicious herring, fried fish or crab and crowned with fresh onions. Preferably snacked on right in the harbor with a view of the fishing boats. If you want to not only taste the work of the professional fishermen, but also experience it up close, you have the opportunity to set sail into the North Sea with one of them in the small sluice harbors on the East Frisian coast.
Out and about with the crab fisherman
Captain and ship owner Heinz Steffens is a crab fisherman in Bensersiel and offers tourists the opportunity to accompany him on his daily fishing routine at sea. The crab fishing season begins at the beginning of March and ends at the end of July, then it is again from mid-September until just before Christmas. On his cutter, the Möwe, Heinz explains to his guests exactly how crab fishing works. Crabs are caught using fishing nets that are lowered into the water to the right and left of the ship's hull with the help of booms and then pulled across the seabed on rollers. As the crabs spoil easily, they are boiled directly on board. In the past, the crabs were peeled in typical home work, often carried out by women, the elderly and children, in the villages on the coast. Today, the crabs are carted by the fishing cooperative in refrigerated trucks to Morocco to be peeled and then come back again. That's cheaper That's cheaper, and since the 1990s, working from home has no longer been compatible with EU hygiene guidelines. So if you want to enjoy crabs as sustainably as possible, you have to learn how to peel them yourself, and Heinz gives a crash course on board for that too.
Crab peeling machine
Test catch with all kinds of marine creatures as bycatch
Let's start with the peeling
Bernd (left) and Heinz (right) peeling
In Bensersiel you will also find one of the typical fish stalls that are everywhere in the ports of the East Frisian coast and are run directly by the fishermen or the cooperative. The fragrant sea air whets your appetite and the long queues at the stalls show that you are not alone with your cravings. Matjes are particularly popular - and of course the crabs too.
How many crabs grow in the vastness of the North Sea each season is an equation with many unknowns, and this also affects the sales prices, which can fluctuate considerably depending on the season. Factors such as water temperature, food supply and fishing influence the development of North Sea shrimp.
The crab's unpredictability is to blame: "With land-based mammals, if the parents have a large generation, we can usually expect a lot of offspring," explains Dr. Claudia Günther, who researches the reproduction of North Sea shrimp at the University of Hamburg. However, the crab turns this rule on its head. According to current knowledge, even a very small population of parents can produce a huge generation.
Large female shrimp can produce up to 10,000 eggs in one go. The other way around, a large population of parents does not automatically lead to a large number of offspring. Most North Sea shrimp do not live longer than a year: then they end up in the mouth of a whiting or cod or they are caught in the nets of shrimp fishermen.
Dieter Janssen shows in his smokehouse in Ihlow how eel is traditionally
is smoked
Aal up Stee
“All up Stee” is Low German and means something like “everything is OK”, and this also applies to the smoked eel of the Janssen family from Ihlow, who get their eels from aquaculture in Germany and the Netherlands. The number of eels in the waters of East Frisia has drastically declined, which is why pöddern, an East Frisian fishing technique for eels, can no longer be practiced everywhere and at all times. The smokehouse has been in existence for five generations and smokes the eels daily according to a traditional family recipe. This is also a delicious snack for in between meals, after all, the air in the interior of the country also tastes of the sea and whets the appetite.
www.aal-janssen.de
Fancy a fish sandwich with eel, crab, egg and bacon? The recipe is available in our recipe database.
