Mr. Schwartze, you are a fisherman in Frankfurt (Oder) and sell fish at the market, among other things. Are people still buying from you?
At the moment, customers are mostly unsettled. Many ask where the fish comes from, whether it is from the Oder. At the moment we only sell fish that we have bought in from the north-east Atlantic, we have to explain that all the time. Sales have also dropped a bit. But it is difficult to say whether this is due to the summer or the environmental disaster.
How is your business usually in the summer?
We hardly fish at all in the summer. Our season is fall, winter and spring. In the summer we earn our money mainly with folk festivals or snack sales, where we sell fish that we have bought. The oxygen saturation in the water of the Oder is lower in summer, which means a lot of stress for the fish. You then bring too many dead fish home. But we want to keep them alive for as long as possible so that we can sell them fresh.
Fishing has been prohibited in Frankfurt (Oder) and the neighboring districts of Oder-Spree and Märkisch-Oderland for almost two weeks now.
This is more of a recommendation. But anyway, due to the food surveillance, we are not allowed to circulate any fish from the Oder that were caught after July 27th. When the catastrophe became visible, the food control called directly.
Home for zander, pike and catfish: it could be years before the animals in the Oder recover from the environmental catastrophe.
:
Image: dpa
How badly has your business been affected?
We are mainly dependent on fishing license sales. Anglers don’t buy them anymore, of course. Everyone saw the pictures of the dead fish. A few fish are still there, but nobody wants to fish for them. Most of it broke. And the number of unreported cases will be significantly higher than what we have seen.
Some experts say it will take several years for the Oder to recover. Are you worried about the future?
That’s scary, because of course you’re wondering what’s going to happen next. The state has announced help, they want to know our yields – especially when it comes to zander, catfish and pike, which are in demand on the market. But I can’t say how the help will be calculated and when it will come. We’ll just have to see what time brings. Hopefully we’ll know more by the end of the year. If it really was this salt and other toxins, then you have to make sure that this is no longer initiated. I don’t understand why Poland accuses Germany of fake news. The office here doesn’t come up with the pesticides, they must have measured the values.
Fishing in the Oder: Andre Schwartze, here with a carp
:
Image: Picture Alliance
As a professional fisherman, you can’t just switch to other waters.
No, you need a fishing license, either you lease an area or you have your own fishing license, but in our part of the world most of them are already taken. We are allowed to fish about 142 kilometers in the Oder, but only on the German side up to the middle of the river.
Poland is expanding the Oder to a faster waterway on its side. What do you think of this project?
I don’t think the expansion is very beneficial, especially in terms of nature conservation. The expansion of the Oder is intended to create a deep canal, which would kill many species. Because of this regulation, there is no longer any flooding of the meadows where the fish spawn and young animals find food, for example the pike. The river needs reasonable spring flooding, otherwise the Oder’s nurseries will be gone.
Will low water also become a problem?
Yes, but the Oder has always had low water. There has been very, very little water in recent years, which limits us. We then see where the water level is still high enough and fish depending on the level and the season. At a water level of 1.90 meters we get into certain arms, but that always depends. We also don’t necessarily go fishing by boat like we did 100 years ago. We load the boat onto the car, drive 20 or 30 kilometers, set up nets, come back the next day and take the fish we have caught with us.
How much do you fish on average?
I don’t want to say that, because that would give the wrong impression, it varies a lot. There are years, for example, when it’s very bad with the pike-perch, a year later it’s top-notch again, and you think: ‘Where do they all come from?’ It’s a bit like playing the lottery, but of course there are a few guidelines. In March, as soon as the ice is gone, we know: we can catch certain species in certain places. In May, when the catfish spawning season begins, we catch them in the appropriate places as required.
Were there problems with the fish from the Oder even before the catastrophe?
In winter, phenol is often discharged, probably in Poland. At room temperature, the substance evaporates and you can only throw the fish away. The fish takes it, it stinks, you can’t sell it anymore. Of course, what happened now is bad for the animals, but there is also something good about it: that we are finally working through who puts what into this river.
