Riding bicycles as a mode of transportation is an integral part of the culture of the city of Amsterdam — but so are the 165 canals that wend their way through the largest city in the Netherlands — so the unusual phenomenon of the world record “bicycle fishing” in Amsterdam should be of no surprise.
World Record “Bicycle Fishing” in Amsterdam
Bicycles are fished out of the canals in Amsterdam by an official authority called Waternet, which is described as “the only water company in the Netherlands that covers the whole water cycle. We provide a safe, clean and sufficient supply of water. This includes water for nature areas and human consumption. These topics are important for everyone. We operate at the very heart of society.” A special watercraft that is equipped with a special claw on a crane is used to actually “fish” the bicycles out of the canals — presumably to keep the waterways as free of obstructions as possible — and deposit them on a small scow or barge.
Although visitors to Amsterdam cannot fish for bicycles out of the canals themselves, the practice has become a tourist attraction. In the video from this post on Twitter, a few people are seen watching the fishing of bicycles — with at least one person taking photographs. A child even jumps up and down in excitement of watching bicycles being fished out of the canal.
This boat collects bycycles from the river in Amsterdam pic.twitter.com/SQxYZ1bao8
— Tansu YEĞEN (@TansuYegen) August 4, 2023
“Every year, between 12,000 and 15,000 bicycles are recovered from the canals of Amsterdam, Netherlands”, according to the official Internet web site of Guinness World Records, which awarded the city with the world record of the most bicycles recovered from waterways in a city. “If the number of bicycles in the city’s canals seems high, it is still only a fraction of Amsterdam’s estimated 847,000 bikes (as of 2015), which equates to an average of 1.91 bikes per household. Waternet believes that the vast majority of the bikes end up in canals as a result of theft or vandalism.”
Furthermore, “Bikes aren’t the only thing regularly fished out of Amsterdam’s 100 km (60 mi) of waterways. According to a dedicated municipal diving unit (part of the city’s fire brigade), on average around 35 cars and 100 people fall into the canals each year too (at least those officially reported).”
That is not surprising when no device is installed to protect landlubbers from falling into the canals — such as a guard rail or fence — assumedly to allow for people to operate boats and other small watercraft in the canals; and perhaps in part contributing to the charm of this city…
…even if some of the infrastructure is literally crumbling.
Final Boarding Call
I have been to Amsterdam several times; and I have not personally witnessed the practice of fishing for bicycles.
Perhaps the next time I am in Amsterdam, I might catch a glimpse of “bicycle fishing” — but I suppose that someone who places a priority on viewing the practice and craving to know all of the statistics could be considered as…
…canal retentive.
All photographs ©2008 by Brian Cohen.
