At dusk, Yasmin Holgeth spends about half an hour underwater in a Dutch canal waiting patiently for signs of migrating perch, common roach and freshwater bream. She is one of thousands tuning into a live webcam submersed in a lock in Utrecht.
From her living room in Salford, Holgeth looks for fish trapped in a closed lock in the Dutch city as they migrate to their breeding ground further up the canal. If viewers spot one caught on the underwater webcam, they press a button to ring the “Fish Doorbell”, prompting the Weerdsluis lock-keeper to open up.
“I am finding it a really good way to practise mindfulness whilst also supporting fish migration. I like to think of it as reverse fishing: all the mindfulness benefits of fishing but no harm to fish — actually, quite the opposite,” the 35-year-old health worker said.
The fact that she has not yet seen a single fish crop up on the murky green window doesn’t deter her. “It doesn’t stop me from looking and waiting in optimism. The day will come.”
She’s not alone. Last year, some 2.7 million viewers tuned in, according to the Fish Doorbell website.
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The municipality of Utrecht launched the project in 2021 with a local ecologist, Mark van Heukelum, to help the thousands of fish that traverse the city’s waterways every year as they move from one river to another.
It has become a surprise hit with viewers worldwide keen to lend a helping hand. “When the lock gates are closed, fish are forced to wait, wasting valuable time and energy, making them easy prey for birds and predatory fish,” the Fish Doorbell website states.
The project launched on Monday and runs from early March to late May, though the peak migration period is April. Dawn and dusk are the best times for fish spotting.
As Holgeth attested, a sighting is far from guaranteed. Laura Mrmak, 41, the administrator of a Fish Doorbell fan club on Facebook, said she started watching the stream last year but had only ever rung the bell 5 to 10 times. “I consider it a rare privilege.”
The image quality of the fish is not exactly high-definition. In a recent post on the Facebook group, users debated whether a ghostly image on the screen was a fish or a plastic bag.
None of this lessens the project’s appeal for Mrmak, who says she logs on a few times a day, often for about 20 minutes before bed.
Mrmak, who is from Canada and works in telecommunications, likened it to watching an aquarium or the fireplace channel. “I enjoy the idea of helping fish far across the world by simply watching and waiting. It’s such a simple and pure activity, and calms my mind,” she said.
Man-made barriers are an acknowledged issue for migrating fish. One study, published in 2020 in the scientific journal Nature, found that there were 1.2 million barriers fragmenting rivers in 36 European countries.
The Fish Doorbell website runs until May, here.
