Dutch national shellfish monitoring in the coastal zone

Every year, Wageningen Marine Research carries out shellfish surveys in the Dutch coastal waters (Wadden Sea, Oosterschelde, Westerschelde and Coastal Zone), investigating the distribution and size of the most important commercial shellfish species. These are mainly mussels, cockles, knife hives and Japanese oysters, but also other species with a certain importance for ecology or fishing are included. In addition, catch data from professional fishing are also collected. The data is used by the government when deciding whether or not to permit fishing. Furthermore, the survey data is important for the evaluation of control measures and impact studies in the context of Natura 2000 and the nature conservation law. Within the Natura 2000 areas of the Wadden Sea, Oosterschelde, Westerschelde, Voordelta and North Sea Coastal Zone, conservation objectives have been set for various bird species that rely on shellfish as a food source. In addition, shellfish banks are an important element in various habitat types

Data and resources

Additional information

Temporal extent	2004-01-01 – 2017-06-27
Date (publication)	2019-04-01
Status	onGoing
Update frequency	asNeeded
Metadata language	en
License	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Source metadata	ISO 19115 XML
Last updated	2026-11-04
Created	2026-11-04
API	package_show