The Netherlands under water – Early Birds
Today
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reading time 2 minutes
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A pike perch fighting an American crayfish, a wind jumping out of the water and the spectacular breeding behavior of the bitterling. Fish play the leading role in the new nature documentary Nederland Onder Water by director and researcher Arthur de Bruin. The common thread in the film is the amazing thousands of kilometers long journey that the eel undertakes to and from the Sargasso Sea. The documentary will hit theaters this weekend.
Arthur de Bruin during films Netherlands Under Water
© Arthur de Bruin (from the Netherlands Under Water)
less cloudy
De Bruin wants the film to champion the underwater world of nature. According to him, the idea is still alive that the Dutch water is murky and dull. This was certainly the case in the 1970s and 1980s, when the water quality in our country was still extremely poor. Many factories discharged their destinations into European rivers, such as the Rhine. The quality of our fresh water is not on order (the Netherlands does not meet the European WFD standard), but it has improved a lot. The water is less turbid and various fish species have been able to recover, such as the brook lamprey, the bitterling, but also the small loach and the grebe. This was also apparent from the new Visa Atlas of the Netherlands, which was published in mid-March.
Sloot, from the film The Netherlands under water.
© Arthur de Bruin (from the Netherlands Under Water)
forest damselfly
Not only fish can be seen in the nature film. Also mittens, lobsters, tickling mosquitoes and the forest damselfly. The males of this dragonfly have broad black wings and a blue metallic shiny body. The larvae can remain submerged for up to two years after emergence. From May, the damsels sneak out of their skins. The females then ingeniously deposit their eggs in the hollow tubes of aquatic plants after mating.
forest damselfly
© Arthur de Bruin (underwater can)
mudcreeper
One way to get into the film is the way the bitterling coexists with the swan mussel. The female of this carp-like fish lays her eggs using her leg tube in the gill cavity of a live mussel. Let the male release his ‘hom’ at the inlet opening of the mussel. The latter eventually exits through the gill cavity of the mussel. Also beautiful is the hidden life of the great mud, surviving even when the water in the stream has almost disappeared, by ‘crawling in the mud’. Or the brave exotic crayfish that loses out to a zander.
Zander (Sander lucioperca)
© Arthur de Bruin (from the Netherlands Under Water)
Eel
It is without a doubt one of the most mythical fish we know. The eel is drawn once in its life to the Sargasso Sea, a region in the Atlantic Ocean off the island of Bermuda, to spawn there. The young eels then migrate to European waters to mature there. In this way, the highly overfished eel moves distances in its attitude.
European eel
© Erling Svensen WWF
Nederland Onder Water is now in cinemas. In the autumn, the film can be seen on television at the NPO (AVROTROS).