Overview of sea, coastal and inland waters and the Dutch Visserijzone
Last checked on: 13 April 2026
There are different rules for fishing in sea, coastal and inland waters. Do you want to know which waters are sea waters? And where the coastal waters are located? The locations of these waters are shown on the map below.
Overview of sea, coastal, inland waters and Visserijzone (Fisheries zone)
You can view the locations of the different waters on the map below. No rights can be derived from this map.
Caption
Caption
This map shows the Dutch waters.
The inland waters are white and green. These include rivers and lakes, as well as the IJsselmeer.
The coastal waters are dark blue and purple. The coastal waters include the:
- Westerschelde
- Oosterschelde
- Europoort
- Wadden Sea
- Eems-Dollard
The blue circles are ports and sea areas:
- IJmuiden
- Katwijk
- Scheveningen
The Visserijzone is the area marked by the green line. The 3-mile zone is black. The 6-mile zone is orange. The 12-mile zone is purple.
This is a schematic overview. No rights can be derived from this map.
Description of waters
The Netherlands has various types of waters. Below, we describe each and what is included.
Sea waters
Sea waters
The sea waters include the:
- ports of IJmuiden and the entrance channels to the Noordzeekanaal
- drainage canal near Katwijk
- ports of Scheveningen, to the most seaward water barriers
A more detailed description of the sea waters (sea area) is given in article 1 of the Besluit aanwijzing zeegebied en kustwateren 1970 (in Dutch).
Coastal waters
Coastal waters
The Dutch coastal waters include:
- the Wadden Sea
- the Dutch part of the Eems-Dollard
- parts of the Europoort:
- the Maasmond
- a part of the Nieuwe Waterweg
- the Calandkanaal and its directly and indirectly situated open ports
- a part of the Beerkanaal
- the Yangtzekanaal and its directly and indirectly situated open ports
- the Goeree Gat
- the Brouwershaven Gat
- the Oosterschelde
- the Westerschelde
- open ports situated on these waters
A more detailed description of the sea waters (sea area) is given in article 2 of the Besluit aanwijzing zeegebied en kustwateren 1970 (in Dutch).
Inland waters
Inland waters
Inland waters include all waters in the Netherlands that are not classified as sea or coastal waters, or as the Visserijzone.
Visserijzone
Visserijzone
The Visserijzone is the Dutch part of the North Sea, which connects to the sea areas and the coastal waters along the coastline.
- Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature
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