Description

“The Subsidy Trawl” investigates how public money flows to the Dutch fishing industry, and whether it achieves its stated goals of food security and sustainability. Drawing on freedom of information requests, EU subsidy databases and scientific analysis, the project maps subsidy streams to individual fishing companies and asks why hundreds of millions in public support have failed to reduce bycatch, fuel use or illegal fishing practices. The project is a collaboration between investigative journalists Parcival Weijnen and Bram Logger (Onderzoekscollectief Spit), and Prof. Ben Vollaard (Tilburg University), supported by the Journalism Science Alliance.

“Public subsidies linked to fisheries are substantial, long-standing and insufficiently scrutinised. This project brings together journalistic and scientific methods to shine a light on where the money goes, and what it actually buys.” — Prof. Ben Vollaard, Tilburg University

Project Team

Media outlet

Coöperatie SPIT U.A.

Amsterdam, Netherlands
https://www.onderzoekscollectiefspit.nl/

Parcival Weijnen

Investigative journalist
Netherlands

Spit	Parcival Weijnen

Research organisation

Tilburg University

Tilburg, Netherlands
https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/

Ben Vollaard

Professor Environmental Economics
Netherlands

Tilburg University

Ben Vollaard