Dutch father-and-son fishers transfer 9.5 tonnes of mature eel in two months, setting a single-site record at Maurik hydropower station

The "Eel Over the Dike" (Paling Over De Dijk, PODD) project at the Maurik hydropower station in Gelderland province, the Netherlands, has set a single-site transfer record for that location this year. According to Dutch fisheries media Visserijnieuws, from 1 September to 2 November (last Monday), inland fishers Komen senior and junior caught a cumulative 9,559 kg of mature eel in 15 fyke nets and transferred them to the other side of the hydropower station, helping them continue their seaward migration.

At a media event on the morning of last Monday, the father and son, witnessed by journalists, caught 322 kg of large, thick-bodied mature eel, then placed them in tanks and released them behind the hydropower station without damage from the station. Never before had so many adult eel been transferred by the Komens at this site. Based on an average weight of 1,430 g, about 7,000 adult eel have been transferred at Maurik. The transferred volume is expected to reach 10,000 kg before the end of this month.

Inland fisher Frans Komen sr. attributed the good catch figures to the dry summer and low river water levels. He said that because of the lack of high water this year, the gates of the hydropower station were never opened; normally, when a large amount of drainage is needed inland, the gates are opened indefinitely and the eel can migrate freely to the sea, but that did not happen this year, so they were able to fish continuously for two months. The eel are currently gathering in front of the hydropower station gates, lingering there, and sooner or later will enter the fyke nets.

PODD national coordinator Magnus van der Meer said that at many of the 20 fishing locations, mature eel catches exceeded expectations. He said that after two months of fishing, the volume of mature eel transferred so far is equivalent to last year's three-month total; although some new fishing locations have been added, this broadly reflects the trend for 2026.

Since its first pilot in Friesland in 2011, the PODD project has become a fixed component of the fishing industry's contribution to the Dutch eel recovery plan through DUPAN and NetVISwerk. At its peak in 2013 there were 25 locations; the project is currently implemented annually at about 20 locations in cooperation with water management authorities and utility companies. Funding for 13 of these locations is provided by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN) and the European Union, with a total four-year budget of 700,000 euros. Location selection is based on the list of major eel migration barriers compiled by Wageningen Marine Research in 2024.

The fishing and transfer costs at the Maurik hydropower station are borne by energy supplier Vattenfall. Although a large fish ladder was built next to the hydropower station, long-term research has shown that it is unsuitable for glass eel entering the river and mature eel leaving the river, so Frans Komen sr. and Frans jr. have for many years been responsible for sound fish stock management at Maurik from September to the end of November.

For dozens of inland fishers, the new PODD fishery provides some income, partially offsetting the annual turnover loss caused by the three-month fishing ban.

In autumn, mature eel leave the Dutch inland waters for spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea near the coast of Mexico, 5,000 km away. In Europe, they encounter migration barriers such as pumping stations, weirs and hydropower stations, and many eel cannot pass through intact.

The DUPAN Foundation is a cooperative body of the Dutch Eel Traders Association (NeVePaling), the Dutch Fish Farmers Association (NEVEVI) and netVISwerk, the interest organization for coastal and inland fishers. The foundation carries out activities that contribute to the sustainable recovery of Dutch inland eel stocks, while also working on eel fishing and farming issues, environmentally friendly and humane processing methods, and promoting scientific research on eel.