The catch is first sieved once the net has been pulled in. Many other animals live at the bottom of the sea. The catch will also contain small flatfish, starfish and crabs and they have to be thrown overboard alive as quickly as possible. Once the catch has been sieved, the shrimp are cooked. Shrimp will drop immediately to the bottom in the shrimp boiler but, for example, small fish will float. These can now easily be removed from the shrimp boiler. After the shrimp have been cooked for 3 to 6 minutes, they are removed from the shrimp boiler and taken to the rinsing machine. The shrimp are now quickly cooled down using a lot of water. Other residue is also rinsed off at the same time. The last action is to place the shrimp on a large sorting table where the last bits that do not belong are picked out. The shrimp is stored in the hold in bags containing 20 kg or so. The shrimp are preserved at a temperature of approximately two degrees Celsius to make sure they can be offered to shrimp traders (such as Heiploeg) as freshly as possible. Shrimp are supplied to all fishing ports in the Netherlands but mainly to the ports of Lauwersoog, Harlingen, Den Oever and Stellendam. Most shrimp is peeled before being sold. The peeling cannot be done using machines because brown shrimp is very small and it is, therefore, done manually. Shrimp are usually transported to Morocco or Eastern Europe in large lorries to be peeled there because manual labour is too expensive in the Netherlands. Next, they are brought back to the Netherlands where they are packaged and sold in supermarkets or at fish shops.
