A what?
A passage for fishes through one of the most robust and solid water management structures. In the Northern part of The Netherlands.
The Dutch created another smart innovation to deal with water masses while restoring ecosystems. At about 1h Northwest of Amsterdam, near the small community of Kornwerderzand, there is the dyke separating the Wadden Sea from the IJssel sweetwater lake (IJsselmeer).
Experience and research showed that the marine ecosystems changed significantly since the construction of that dyke. The IJssel lake, once having been a shallow bay leading to open waters (back then called called Zuiderzee), gradually transformed into a freshwater lake. Fish migration to and from the open sea was blocked.
As one result, fish populations in the IJssel lake area decreased and the natural fish migration patterns of various fish species were altered.
The ingenious solution developed in recent times took the form of a so called “fish migration river” – a water route for the fish to swim again freely from salt to sweetwaters and back again.
Also, the area will be opened for recreational tourism in the next two years. In the meantime, guided tours on site are available on request.
It is definitely an interesting site! Hope is that with the fish species able to migrate back and forth again, ecosystems will restore and fish populations will grow.
A smart traveling fish is a well informed one! Distance tables on both the IJssel lake and Wadden Sea side, values given in km.
Guided tours at this moment are organised by It Fryske Gea, here for instance: https://www.vismigratierivier.nl/activiteiten/wandelexcursie/
Although the site is in Dutch, do not hesitate! Most Dutch speak English more than well enough. Assume that this project simply did not yet have the extra resources to provide a translation of their web contents – but let that not prevent you from joining an excursion.
The walk is quite easy to do even for less fit persons, both in terms of walking pace and terrain type. Just keep in mind that there will be some stairs so the itinerary is unfortunately not accessible for wheelchairs.
Nearby the fish migration river structure, there also is the Afsluitdijk museum: A light-filled, spacious building hosting an interactive and permanent exposition about the Afsluitdijk works and their history. It is an excellent idea not only for rainy or stormy days. The building has a rooftop terrace a large café / restaurant. Free parking on the premises.
More details:
The fish migration river: https://www.fishmigratierevier.nl
The Afsluitdijk museum: https://afsluitdijkwaddencenter.nl/