Legends of the Mediterranean

28 May

Quotes from the ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage Project in the Mediterranean’

Cadaques, Spain

“It used to be a way of life. Now it is just food. There used to be a lot of fishermen here. Now there are only a few.” She says there used to be lots of people selling fish in the street. Now it is only her. She points to the tourist shops and restaurants across from her little fish stand and says, “there used to be groceries sold there and rows of fish being sold here.”

– Nuria Barachina Gonzalez – 80-years old

” What changed the most is the magic of traveling has turned into an act of consumption… It makes it easier for many people but at the same time they don’t get this thrill I… this connection with the very far away… That’s why I started choosing deliveries on more distant destinations. I started to really enjoy crossing the Red Sea, or the distant islands of the Indian Ocean, because then you don’t get this feeling of these places already being spoiled by such tourism.”

”The main task today and I think the Heraclitus is part of this task… and that is re-enchanting the world…. only one thing that is worth accomplishing these days… what I try to do… again with this orchard… following the setup of one guy a Scottish adventurer who started this orchard… learn more about this guy… can see this rock where he was buried… trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together but trying to respect and not spoil the mystery of it… the way you tell stories… to tell it to keep the mystery together….it’s how it’s told.”
— Bruno Catonnie, sailor and orchardist Corsica

“Italians bring a special kind of fishing to Corsica. Because of the history of coastal raids and pirates, Corsicans live inland in the mountains. Italians brought coastal fishing to Corsica.”

”The protected areas are good for the fish but not so good for the fishermen.”

“Corsica now is more for tourists. The fisherman is not part of the scenery for the tourists… though they like to eat fish at the restaurants.”

” When I started fishing, there were 600 fishermen in Corsica. Now there are only 300 and not many young people are interested in fishing.”

”I was 17 years old and going out and fishing with my father. It was a sunny day with a bright blue sky. We were fishing and then my father said, “Cut the net.” I did not agree and did not do it. He told me again to cut the net but I did not want to. They he bounded across the boat and started cutting the net himself. He told me to go below and close up everything. He said we had five minutes. I went below but I thought he was crazy. I did what I was told and in five minutes a huge tempest blew up. The boat was tossed by huge waves, the wind was very strong and there was rain and hail and ice in the sky. If we had kept the net out we would have sunk. Later I talked with my friend, who was the same age and had been out fishing with his father on the same day. He told him, it happened exactly the same with him. His father told him they had five minutes. ”
— Joseph Luci fisherman Corsica

It was my first time in Libya in Gulf of Sirte. Again I was spear fishing with my father and brother. We hear some strange voice in the water and a beautiful dolphin arrives and says “hello”. It was my first time to see a dolphin in the water. Libya is the real Mediterranean. It is a rich sea because Libya is a poor country and doesn’t have fishing. Their sea is the real Mediterranean like the sea my father saw when he was a child.

I met this Sicilian fisherman during my trip with my family. He is a tuna fisherman. He is so big, so tall, and so strong. His eyes are so totally different. His eyes show an emotional man with lots of stories in his life, and lots of big fish in his life. I remember he came out of this boat holding a tuna like a baby in his hands. I think this fisherman is a real sea man. I want to become a little bit like him.

“I think the sea is the breath of the earth… The most important is thing is the new generation. They need to be educated in the schools about the sea and learn how to not use it as a trash basket.
— Clemente Serafini Italian, Rome, diver and crewmember of Heraclitus

”During my father’s time we sold fish in front of the arches — on veranda/porch — in old times the women involved in everything but fishing — ran the business — take care of everything. The behavior of customers changed — people do not have time to fillet fish themselves. The size of fish changes. They are smaller. Fishery has changed. I think mankind is just destructive.”

”Once the problem was selling and not fishing. Now the problem is fishing and not selling… The demand for fish is bigger than supply. ”
–. Giovanni Delmonte – former fisherman and son of many generations of fisherman and a FISH MONGER in shop. Imperia, Italy

Image by Handte, onboard Heraclitus in Marseille

“The fish we caught: mustelle, gobbi, and bordette (soup fish) sgitti, octopus and cuttlefish. We took little crabs in winter… went out in night to long-line… small long-line all night long. Sometime women helped on the boat.

The lines were made of hemp… sometimes we harpooned the fish…
not much education so people learned from stories of people who traveled and came back home. That’s how I started thinking about going somewhere else. I am happy and always improving.”

”I design my own nets. Thanks to politicians we are forced to limit our catch when we could catch more with less expenses, Every improvement we proposed is rejected. The net I am repairing is an experiment. I am building it upside down… inverting float line, gill net then other net then led line… experiment. We harvests occhiata — look like sea bass with big eyes – Lampuga and Morone — brown fish false salmon.

“The same net, with meter of margin for dolphins to escape. This is used for marone — used by 35 boats, between Loano and Sanremo. 5 and 40 nautical miles off coast. Learned with father and grandfather — all nylon — not cotton now but the same technique and shape.”
— Salvatore Greco, “Turi” Imperia, Italy 18/3 2013 March (father and the owner of the boat “Picolla”)

”I love to fish anything but the most important is the nature… if you put me in an office, I would escape. I want the sea, the sun.”
— Luca Greco Imperia 18/3 2013 March 18 (son of Sakvatire Greco and fishing captain on father’s boat “Picolla”)

“My grandfather who had a wooden leg would row the boat in sciabica. This is a type of fishing from shore . You have little boat that rows out with a net, describing a large curve to take it out and bring it back to beach where people haul it in with the fish. It was a 5 meter boat. The fishing takes all day and he rowed this boat in and out with a wooden leg, from morning to evening – all day. What strength and endurance!”

”Fish are intelligent. Otherwise they would not get big. I am so sorry that I did not have a camera to show you how it was. There were no cruise liners, no pollution.”

”I love the sea, the fishing. I saw sunsets and sunrise you would not believe. We fishermen do this with respect for nature because we know it. Sometimes I know we have to restrain ourselves to avoid overfishing. There are not many who think the same way.”
— Salvatore Di Nucci fisherman Imperia, Italy

Image by Handte, onboard Heraclitus in Tabarka, Tunisia

”Many old professions like fishermen, boat builders, sail makers nearly disappeared because families converted to serving tourists. The traditions have not been passed down to youth. If this is not gathered and recorded, the history and traditions will die and be forgotten.”

“The maritime culture of this area is unique like Fano is different. Every area is different. It leads to a different identity. Like those to the north of Pesaro. The differences are driven by response to the different morphology of the coast. That leads to different responses and different techniques. ”

“There is a common language of the sea and those living on the coast. There are more similarities between all the coastal people than there is between the land people and the sea people.”

“If a fisherman dies, his wife becomes the patriarch. She will decide who does what in the family. She distributes the catch. There is a term “parcenevole” which means the guy or girl who is a full crewmember but does not go to sea. Instead they handle all the logistics on land. They have high status, almost like a captain. ”

”… The eyes on the bows of fishing boats. These fishermen couldn’t read and the knowledge was carried through stories. In Chioggia the eyes are painted. In Pesaro they are sculpted. The ships are like members of the family. They have distinctive sails to identify which family or clan they are from. This was part of the procedure to give a boat a soul. The plisso – a toupee on the bow is an ornament and represents hair. The procedure also includes sacrificing animals to ask for a safe return to port.”

“There is also a special knife with a black handle. The captains would throw it into the main mast while swearing as a ritual to keep danger away. The ritual and the secret curse would be passed from father to son during Christmas night. This marked the transition of leadership on the boat and family.”

”I don’t want this work to be nostalgic. I… to tell the story about the past. To make it possible to use tradition to fight globalism. The past with its respect for nature and the environment… we need to keep local traditions not because they are better… but to put in a holistic relationship between people and place… We need to find a new way to make people listen to old stories. They have to tell these stories and understand that the garlic and parsley in the food aren’t just there for taste. The garlic controlled worms and parsley helped with taste… I want to surprise people, to sneak it into the brain.”
— Maria Lucia De Nicolo, – professor and museum director of maritime museum specializing in ancient traditions of fishing and the role of women in fishing communities. Pesaro, Italy

“I had a friend who was shot through the mouth while fishing off shore. He was shot by a Coast Guard boat from Marshal Tito. There were many people who died… even in International waters. My friend was shot in the throat in the presence of his bother. It was a fish war. It was the war of fish between Yugoslavia and Italy…

“During the war the water in front of the community was full of mines. The fishermen because they were hungry, they would go out and hit a mine and die. The first years they went out and boom… after that, the ones that did not explode sank… and trawlers would bring them up in their nets and then the mines would explode on the fishing boats. There is a church here with the names of the fishermen who died. There is a lot to see and it’s described in my book.”
— Pierpaolo Zagnoni Notario, author and historian for Italian Navy Venizia Lido, Italy

”The community in Chioggia… They kept the families together and the community and the town helped the fishermen. The life span of the fishermen up to through the 1960s and 1970s was not more than 50-years.

The fishing community is s actually like a clan. The families don’t use surnames. They use nicknames.

It is always the same families. From the 70s to 90s they had this boom. They built more and more and fished harder and harder. They are now on the ground – crashed. They did it to themselves. The ocean here is very shallow, so they have to go down south to get to deeper waters first to 200-500 meters and then you go to Ionian sea, you have over 1,000 meters so you still have fish there.

Now the next story comes. The reconversion. Partly these families just quit. The ones with the passion change. They have smaller boats now…they get down to 200 250 horsepower and they are fishing for shellfish. The best fishing grounds for shell fish is near where the river comes out. That’s the best. So they are invading the area down south. There is a new fish war starting over the shellfish.”

“The history of the Adriatic and Chioggia is the toughest story in the Mediterranean. The other places are in Sicily. There everything is more aggressive – the fishery and the fishermen. Thirty years ago I went to Tunisia and out of Kerkennah I watched. I cannot tell you how much fish they took. It was incredible. The problem is not only that they fish in Tunisian waters, but Italian fishermen also go on land in Tunisia and take sheep, goats etc. So there is a war going on and to smooth this war down, they take Tunisian fishermen on their boats and maybe they go to Greece to fish because the Tunisian fishermen say they are not going to fish in their home waters.”

”The fishing community is very thankful for the Marshall Plan after the war, but these are Italians, we are talking about. You give them a little and they want more. So they destroy themselves. Even with the over fishing, and government buyout, they can’t stop being aggressive and wanting more. Now they are modifying the flat trawl gates to become giant metal combs to dig under the surface of the sea, and behind they have the nets so nothing escapes from them. It’s stupid thing. We did not learn any lessons.”

”I don’t have much hope of creating a sustainable fishery. There is a lot of talk, but the younger fishermen who are converting to smaller boats, are already talking about gearing up to get the most. They want it. They want to make money.”
— Pierpaolo Zagnoni Notario, author and historian for Italian Navy Venizia Lido, Italy

“My father fished in 1918 all over Italy. We have three generations that fished here. I am the youngest but I love what I do. I never considered marrying anyone but a fisherman. If I were a boy I would be fishing. I have two daughters. One is married to a fisherman. It is a man’s world.”
— Argentina Luciani Argentina fisherman’s wife, Ancona, Italy

“In 1944 I was on the mountain when I witnessed a massive attack of American bombers on the port. The bombers were like a storm of birds destroying the port. The port was being used to build bombs and torpedoes and the fishing boats were used to transport Nazi and Mussolini’s soldiers.”

“I was 13. They gave me a toolbox and told me to climb up on a boat and get to work. I had no idea what I was doing that first day. I stepped into a hole where the engine was and hurt myself. I did not cry out and I picked myself up. I did not tell anyone about the fall and just went to work.”

“The shipyard was rebuilding the fishing fleet the Americans had destroyed with funds from America through the MarshalL plan. These were large boats. The Fleet at Porto Santa Stefano was second only to Sicily at the time. The Maistro D’Ascia was an important craftsman then.”

****”We were supposed to work three years to become a ship’s carpenter. The final proof of our competency was building an 8-meter boat using only hand-tools. I and another apprentice worked together on our boat. We built it in 2 to 3 weeks on our own time.”

“In 1962, I came back and worked two years in the boatyard. Things had changed. The boatyard was nearly closing. The fishing fleet was built and gone. The yachts came in. The first private boats were converted fishing boats with lighter cabins. There were no designers. The client would describe what he wanted and the Maistro D’Ascia would come up with the plan by building a model or half models.

These half models have parallel lines made out of different colored wood – screwed one into the other… at water lines and other important parts. They would take the models apart and scale them up to the boat. These boat designs were called “The plan of the woods”. This is still a term used in modern boat building here in Italy. ” (You can see these models on the tape)

“The maestro would build the model and think “this should float” and “It’s OK let’s build this baby.”

“First we had to create a flat area — a thin piece of wood or plywood laid on the floor and we would start by laying the keel. From the model we would build the frame. Each piece is carved and shaped by an axe.

This is the most emotional moment for me because we spend lots of days making the various ribs and parts of the frame. The assembly takes a day or 2. It’s the first time you can finally see your design. The planking is relatively routine.”

“The most emotional moment remains after all these years when I gets the ribs shaped without the planking. And after hundreds of boats, the moment we launch a boat we have built and see the cut line and water line, is still exciting. It the first time I get to see if it floats the right way. The first person to step on the boat is the builder. When I step on the boat I can feel it. This is the only thing that was transferred from fishing boats to yachts. To do this work, I returned to school to become a Maistro D’Ascia. I was in early 30’s at the time.”

”I have two sons who are following me into this kind of work. I had enough money to send all my children to university. I wanted to give them the choice. Only one son wanted to do something else. But the oldest son was always sneaking around the boat yard. He did not want to go to university. He wanted to build ships. I sent the two that followed me to maritime school. One became a captain and the other became a captain/engineer. They both served at sea but they returned to the family shipyard.”

”Wooden boats are the future. Plastic boats have problems. What are you going to do with the plastic? You can’t recycle it. The region wants to promote wood boat building and the government understands the importance of an apprentice program to the future of boat building.

We are respected. We were asked to represent the region in the big boat show in Genoa. I also went to Brussels to promote the work.”
— Giancario Cerulli, 80 year Maistro D’Ascia and owner of his own boat yard specialist in traditional wooden boats, Porto Santo Stefano, Italy

”During the winter it is usually just the professional fishermen… but during the nice season it is often more of the dilletantes than the professional fishermen. Part of it is there is nice weather and all of that but another part of it is that there are so many people out of jobs and without anything that they look to the sea as a possible way to help. The problem is that it has been so fished out that there is not enough. There have been some battles and some of them have been really bad.”

”There is a lot of sabotage. They might pour acid on their nets; poke a hole in their boats. There is a lot of disrespect done when nobody can see it. There have been situations with knive,s but “not really anymore” than what happens between professional fishermen. There is always a level of violence among fishermen. There is a bit of the life. There are no rules out there.”

“The tramontana is the best wind for fishing so we watch for that. Also in the summer when it is calmer, we go for the dorado.”

”I got this boat two-years ago because I want to start tourism fishing. The smaller boat is the best for one person. Next August, I will clean up the boat. And start taking tourists. I have a kitchen and we will start cooking on board.”

“This is the first one in this port. I am breaking ground. For right now everyone is just watching…”

“I am head of the cooperative. There is a reason my experience comes from my family. Many of these guys are first generation… but when the passion gets in you, you gain experience faster than others.”
—. Rosario Floresta, (done in front of his boat in Palermo, Sicily)

”I have been a fisherman since I was 14. I have been doing this since I was born. His father did this. I am 54 years old. There is nothing else I can do. Look on land there is nothing for them even if they knew what to do. So we have no choice. The problem is that we know we are working and living in an industry that has no future and no way of providing the life for them.”

”In the old days the fish created the quotas. There were season and they would be followed and they would be respected. Now that they brought in the quotas, they are saying this is a transit port. Yet how can they say that? We have been tuna fishermen for 200 years. How can you say we can’t fish tuna from here?”

”We were always near the coast in smaller boats when I started. The fleet was smaller and these huge boats did not exist.”

“I am called Todoro because my father was dark so he is the son of Todoro. There are some nice nicknames and some not so nice.
The people on the boats are related. Two to three on a ship. Most of the fishermen in Porticello are related. We are all family. All the generations. All are fishermen.”

“I once saved a guy on a burning boat. We cut his nets, attached his boat to ours and pulled him into port. We heard over the radio that the engine had caught fire… and we went to help. When we got there they had gotten the fire out but the boat could not move. We cut the nets and towed him to shore.”

“There is a story or myth about the night of Christmas where you have to say a prayer, a different prayer every year. That’s to protect you but I believe that God decides. It’s god’s way. You just have to learn how to interpret god and interpret the wind and things like that. There was a young man who believed this and he died.”

”Most of the fishing gear we used have been outlawed…There are 15-20 boats that are parked here to be demolished. If it keeps going like this… the whole place will be empty… but there are still a lot of fishing boats out there.”
— Orlando Giovanni Salvatore in Porticello, Sicily

”It is in my DNA. My grandfather and father went out in these boats. I was born in this port. I grew up with my grandfather and in 1957 I would go walking with my grandfather in the port and we would go by all the boats. I went out fishing with him. It’s in my DNA.”

“It starts with a design. Then you make the sections. You have the anchor points on the front and back of the boat, which gives the structure. Then the ribs are put. While you are making it you make it in sequence. You need an eye. Despite the design, you need the traditional eye of the maestro to adjust it. It is not just the design.”

“These boats bring with them another way of navigation, another way of sailing, another way of moving from place to place. To bring food home. It was about work. It has as its principal scope to bring food to the family. Now it is just for people to relax as a break. So it changes because in the past, there used to be 7 or 8 people on board. He instead sails on his own, which is actually a huge risk when you are working with the Latin sail. When you are going downwind it is difficult to move the sail by yourself, but it is hugely satisfying, it adds so much more.”

”It’s a huge change (motors in boats). They way It has changed has changed it to another level completely. Most importantly was time. When you had to go where you had to fish it took time. When you came in it took time. You had to be aware at all times to know when you had to reduce your sail. With a motor it is a lineal action. It does not take as much time and time is money. Over time they became use to the engine. They forgot the sail. For most of these people this is business and time is money. Time they get there and the time they get back and the fact they can avoid storms more quickly has a huge impact. It’s always in your blood. When you come together to work with the nets what is called (mallat sene) everyone working with the nets. We still talk about the old sailboats, the old historic sailboats. That is still important. When everyone sits around fixing nets, we talk about this.”

”My grandfather used to spread oil on the sea when there was bad weather. That was a way of calming the storms, calming the sea.”

”Sometimes they would go far from Trapani to fish around the islands and occasionally storms would kick up while they were out there and rather than reduce the sails and spending the night at one of the islands or cutting the nets and going to port, my grandfather would always carry oil with him and he preferred to pour the oil to calm the waters. And so when the winds would be coming from the bow, he would pour the oil to calm the waters and that way he would be driven by the winds but without the rough sea. He would always say, “I need to get back home, because my wife, nicknamed the Englishwoman, is waiting for me and she gets nervous when I am out in storms”. She was a woman who was known as being a storm herself. She had a face that is like an Englishwoman and that is why she is called that.”

“The names of winds here are accepted all over. The Tramontana the Sirocco. We all know those names and those are the names that are used. The wind from the west they call the large wind because it takes a large amount of time. Then there are the Tramontana, the Sirocco that have their own particularities.

The winds called the Latin winds are the positive winds that come from Greece… the Sirocco… The Tramontana the ones that come from the north are the heavy winds… they would come back in.”

”The tradition is that if money falls into the boat, it is the boat’s money and it stays there regardless of when it falls in. So you will often find when you are repairing boats, coins in the building of the boat or in the insulation and that’s because in building the boat, the boat, as they say, “the boat took its money.”

”Moreover what we are conscious of and attached to are the catholic traditions. So every boat has aspect of this. So underneath in the nitch near the tiller, there is San Josepe. He is always in the back in the middle. And on the starboard side is Madonna and on the port is Jesus with san Josepe. If you look in his boat you will see a nitch with a reliquary with San Josepe.

So they are devoted to these Saints. Saint Francis is the patron saint of fishermen… so every year when they go out, they make a prayer to Saint Francis. So you always go with these saints. For example when you leave the port you always go in the way of God. It is a way of praying for good luck.”

”The statue just outside the port represents the Madonna of Trapani. A statue of a girl was found in the ocean many years ago. And this statue represents her. They found this statue and then they found out which town in belonged and there was an argument over where it should be housed and it was decided that it would be put on a raft again. So they put her back into the water and pushed her out to sea. If it went back to its original home, then that’s where it belonged. If it came back to Trapani then that’s where it belonged. And it did come back to Trapani and now it is the patron saint of Trapani… the protector of fishermen. So it is put so that every boat that leaves the port sees it and can say a prayer to it.”

“We see tornadoes. I have friends that know how to cut tornadoes. They have this prayer and they cut the tornado with a knife and the tornado drops. This is a tradition that a friend of mine has done and is passed on in his family for generations.”

”These are like children these boats. You talk to them while sailing. She responds just like children, taking instruction. To go to sea in an antique boat is completely different than climbing onbaord and turning on the engine and smellling the deisel fuel. They are particular boats. They are stupendous. Anybody who sees them at sea gives them a compliment because it has a beautiful line. It has an aesthetic. It’s like a beautiful woman.”

”I was out and there are two points where the sail attaches to the mast and there was a strong chirocco. There was rain and these attachments had gotten blocked so I couldn’t tack. I couldn’t turn the boat. I was being pushed very strongly to the rocks. Ultimately I had to grab the boom with my hands and pull it forcing the boat to tack and just avoided the rocks at the end. The boat at this point was half-filled with water and by the time I got into port, there was my maestro D’ascia who looked at me, who had seen everything, saw the water in the boat and just commented to me “you’re just not normal”.”
— Giovanni D’Aqui, 54 years old (traditional long boat building/sailor) Trapani, SI Italy

”This tradition of ***chuncholo or purse seine nets started here. They were the first to harvest the blue fish and to export them all over the world. Including the technology all over the world, including Alaska. In fact the population of Marettimo, an island nearby grew. There was a boom. There used to be a hundred boats that did this type of fishing. Now there are only 2. What you see here are boats that come from all other cities because the fish is there.”

“But the recent policies for the demolition of boats are primarily targeting the boats that are doing the blue fish fishing. So it has had the greatest impact on that sector.
That is why the port is down to two boats from a hundred.”

”No It ends with him. Today fishing is not supported, not managed, even by the fishermen. Even in the past when the fishermen used to manage and govern themselve. Nobody becomes a fisherman anymore. Here it is only the old people. They retire and still come back to work here as fishermen. ”

”It (the red in the Mattanza picture) is also the blood of the fishermen, of there work. This is not just the blood of the tuna, it is also the blood of the fishermen, of their work. All of this is a sacrifice. It is about sacrifice, sacrifice of the tuna, sacrifice of the people who for years have lived with the tuna. So you could see the sacrifice of these people, of their work is reflected in the blood.

Sacrifice of Christ, sacrifice of the tuna, sacrifice of the men. The songs of tuna fishermen always reflect the Madonna. Sacrifice of the Madonna.”

”If the Mattanza went badly, you don’t bring money home. You don’t feed the family.
For the work of the Trapanese fishermen, it is the life. Tuna is life.”

”The last Mattanza was ten years ago and it was created for tourists. Why? Because we had not been catching enough tuna. It was going to extinction because the driftnets of the Japanese have been destroying the Mediterranean. If before we used to do a Mattanza with 500 tuna. The last few were with 50 or 60 tunas, so they invented this touristic way. The tourists go to help with the Mattamza and it was a way to cover the expense of this tuna harvest. ”
— Antonio Gianquinto, Antonio , owner of fishermen’s cafe and photographer along with fisherman, Trapani, 9 Sicily, Italy

“This prayer is said on the eve of Christmas and then when you find tornados at sea you need to say the prayer. Most important to have faith… It’s learned over the cours of years, passed on from father to son and there have been cases where three or four tornados have been cut, the weather calms and the tornados disappears. This prayer has existed as long as his family remembers. It is passed down from father to son. He doesn’t even know how it began. It is a prayer you learn at Christmas eve… first of all you have to believe. If you don’t believe, it doesn’t work… When you find a tornado you say the prayer three times, you make the sign of the cross, you pull out a knife and cut the wind in front of you like this. After a couple of seconds you see the tornado rising and it disappears and the sea’s calm.

”I do not know (whether it existed before the Christian faith). I remember my grandfather did it, my father… at least 200 years, it has been in practice and works.

“When I see a tornado in Florida, I wonder why there aren’t people in America that can protect the people… here… maybe the tornados are smaller you can cut them…. Maybe no one in America believes….”

”These kind of people (who do not believe) are all over. They don’t believe in anything and they laugh at the belief of others. Even now even here, there are plenty of people around. But the facts are those. When you see a tornado and it comes close to earth and… you see it has raised up, you know somebody has done the prayer. Even if it wasn’t me, you can see somebody else has done it. You can see by the way it disapates. When you see it in first person, there is no arguing… In the end it doesn’t matter whether they believe or not. If the storm calms, they don’t have to believe.”

”In our modern times, faith has slipped… not everybody believes in the same way…but you see generally have faith. Before they leave the port, the do a few “our fathers”. Faith is required in everything we do… if there is no faith then what you are doing is a waste of time.”

”For about 4 or 5 years we have been seeing these new tropical fish in the area. There has been too much change… too many tools. There is a new type of way to make it more efficient. At the same time it is destroying fishing because it harvests too much fish. The fish don’t have a chance to restock, to build up their population. In the old days the old ways of finding fish, if there were fish at a distance, we would not know they were there. Now with sonar you know there are larger schools at a distance and with the motor you can get there quickly. This is bad for fishing but right now if we don’t have this, we could not make ends meet.”
— Giuseppe La Pica, fisherman from a family who know how to cut storms, Trapani Sicily, Italy

“The engine I work on is taller than many houses. My sister, a teacher, was appalled by the noise. For me the engine room has no noise, because I wear noise suppressors all day. It is very quiet. I cannot imagine being a teacher and dealing with the persistent noise of the children…. The sea is quiet and that is what I like about it.”

”I have been all over the world on board container ships. One of my favorite places in New Caledonia. But the reality is…I spend most of the time below decks in the engine room and can go for many voyages without seeing the sea.”

“It is a problem… but the pirates that attack container ships are not poor people. We are going too fast for just any boat to catch us. Modern piracy is the work of organized international criminals.”

“It is not always easy (being a woman on board a container ship). There are usually no problems because the ship has a strict hierarchy and she is an officer… but some of the older seaman had a problem… Also it is a woman who gives orders. But the ship is all about the hierarchy and teamwork and the need to go faster all the time to meet the schedule.”

“Hierarchy is everywhere on board a container ship. ”

“The tower on the ship is called the “castle.” And the captains apartment is the largest and at the top. Beneath are the officers with smaller salons and finally the seaman who have smaller rooms lowest down.”

“At the table no one eats until the captain does and he initiates the conversation. Even in the smallest things the hierarchy is impressed on everyone on board. My sister wondered how I could live this way, but on the ship, these are just the rules. They are the laws of the ship.”
— Anais Boulay, engineer on container ship, Marseille, France

“…boat that predates the barquet called the bete or the nose of a pig in French. He says he knows of only two examples of this boat – one in Sete and the other built more recently in Marseille and now at sea.”

“The traditional flat bottom barquet was used by fishermen here till WWI. Then they switched to engines.”

“The traditional boat hulls in the Mediterranean look a lot alike… but seamen can tell the difference. There are different boats for each city and each country… The Italian fishermen arrived in Marseille with the farook and they could tell instantly that it was not the same.”

The lateen sail (found in one form or another throughout the Mediterranean) went to Switzerland when 500 years ago some dukes from Switzerland brought carpenters from the Mediterranean area to the lake of Lemon. They asked to build a ship for them so the hull is different to reflect the needs of the different conditions but the sail is similar. They also bring Mediterranean seamen words to Switzerland.”

”On the Barquet the design some say it’s phallic to fertilize the sea… some other people says it’s just comfortable to use it….”

“Bafroonier — the word for storm traveled… they believe the first Greek who settled in Marseille used this word for storms…. verses Tempest in French…

“There are some kinds of fish they never saw in the Mediterranean — the barracuda. He never saw it before and the birds. Some new birds are staying in the summer and some old birds that were before and disappeared came again.”

”In Marseille we don’t know anymore the names of the winds. The only words they know is the Mistral… Because the TV uses the name “tramanton” to mean northwest and in Provencal it is true north and in Catalan the same.”
— Remuzat, Bernard – Marseille – professor of Provencal and owner of Marseille Barquet

”I am in awe of the older ships carpenters. I knew a man who is 75 years old. I saw him build a boat without instruments. He used a piece of paper with some drawings and without measuring cut the wood and fitted the boat and everything was right.”

(As far as container ships) “Throughout history boats were built to transport materials and people. Today it is the same… just in a different way. The huge container ships play an import role. They may not be good for the environment but conditions have changed. We need more big ships to bring more stuff because there are more people.”

“My generation of carpenters are different from the old carpenters in that they are very concerned with safety and tend to keep all their fingers intact. You used to be able to recognize carpenters because they would be missing fingers or parts of fingers.”

”I use many kinds of wood…. Historically France valued wood as a marine resource. A minister named Colbert, who under King Luis 14th, had a special forest for maritime wood…. Today the wood used in boats is mostly imported.”

”As far as superstitions concerning boats, it is bad luck to rename a boat. I renamed my boat and then forgot to ward off the bad luck by driving through my own wake. Fifteen minutes after neglecting this ritual, my motor broke down… I don’t know why, but that is what happened.”
— Cyril Puccia, Cyril, 33 Years old, Ships carpenter Marseille

“I still have it (a boat model his father gave him when he was five-years-old). I was so proud of this magnificent boat. It’s up there. That I was hooked on the sea forever.”

”When a traditional boat builder dies and there are no apprentices, the knowledge goes with him. ” He also says, “the knowledge to sail these boats also disappears because as the boats get discarded, the skill to use them also is gone along with the local knowledge of seas and currents.”

”Each community has a slightly different ship and techniques vary a bit on how to build them….We need to measure these boats, and draw plans for them and document how they were used before the people who have that knowledge are gone… Seapeople spread specific techniques through the Mediterranean and the world. I found the stitching techniques used by the Romans to build their boats showing up on a remote Indian Ocean islands. ”
— John Pendray, official Marine painter with French Navy, Marseille

“He tells a story about a strange episode between tuna and a fisherman he knows in L’estaque. Last October, when it was hot, a tuna fish were not getting enough oxygen in the region and they swam up towards the surface. The best place for them to get the oxygen they needed was right by the boat. A fishing crew from L’estaque was out fishing and found their boat surrounded by tuna — big ones — 250 kilos. The appearance of the fish by the boats did not indicate a change in the numbers of tuna. They just needed more oxygen. The fishing boat did not have heavy enough line to catch the huge tuna, so they just fed the fish with the sardines they had on board — feeding the tuna like they were pet dogs.

“In the past, if you don’t see a fisherman sleeping or eating, he is working on his boat. Now there is more time for family and for himself.”

”The barquette was modified with the advent of the motor during WW I. The flat hull favored motors and the bow and stern was later modified to fit fishing gear and roller furling.”

“Bouillabaisse is a traditional dish made by fishermen before there was refrigeration. They would cook the damaged fish they could not sell, putting them in the pot with stones that had seaweed on them. The stones with seaweed were used for the taste. They would use only what they had on board in the bouillabaisse.”

”The education for children about the sea and boats is very bad. If children had a place to play in the sea and could swim, sail and row boats they would not get into trouble and not become criminals. Instead they would spend their energy in the sea doing real stuff.”
— Richard Volpe, the son of a fisherman who does not fish now and is President de la Societe Nautique, Lei Pescatou de l’Estaco,

(about Catalan place located just outside the Vieux Port (old harbor). “About 400 years ago the Spanish came. They had a bigger navy than the French and Marseille set them up just outside the harbor. Now the neighborhood is known as Catalan place after the Catalonian ships and sailors that stayed there…”

”Immigration is not relevant in Marseille. The place is full of people from all over the Mediterranean. People are so mixed up. On the Mediterranean for thousands of years, there has always been immigration. This is Marseille.”
— Philippe Oddou, President de l’association des classes de Mer Marseille Mediterranee (teacher and sailor)

”Globalization is wiping out the Mediterranean culture. For example Ulysses traveled all around and we see the places he went to. The island l’Ampedusa used to be a place with trade and charm. Now it is ugly because of the immigration camps full of North Africans.”
— Daniel Armogathe, president de la cinematheque de Marseille

”The only slag word I know that is associated with the sea is the word for drowning.”
— Daniel Armogathe, president de la cinematheque de Marseille

“My family is originally from Italy and Tunisia. My grandfather came from Tunisia and started building boats just like the ones he built in Tunisia here in Marseille. Since then boat building has been a family business. I don’t remember my first boat because I was so small when I first came to the boat yard… a baby.”

”If my grandfather would walk into the shop today he would recognize everything except for the computers in the office. My shop is the same place he built and worked in. He would remember everything. Now we have problems because everyone wants our spot because it is the best in the port.”

His grandfather made these wooded boats for fishermen but Denis does not remember any working boats being built in his shipyard. By the time he started making the traditional Marseille barquet it was no longer a fishing boat. Instead these small wooden sailboats were made for pleasure.

“My clients have money and can afford a wood sailboat. Most want a traditional wood boat because they love the sea and want to help preserve the traditional boats and give it to their children. ”

”I don’t remember when I started working in the family boatyard building boats. I went to university to get respect. I needed a diploma to show people that I am intelligent, but my real education happened right here in this boat yard at my father’s side.”
— Denis Borg, traditional boat builder Marseille “Chantier Naval Denis Borg”

(about the boat made of Jute in Bangladesh that she is sailing around the world)
” There are only just the necessities (on board). The idea was also to show that we can do things without a lot of money and so I only have charts and that’s it. A GPS in my hand, a little VHF and that’s it. No radio, no computer, no nothing.”
— Capucine Trochet, – 30 years-old. Sailing a jute boat Marseille (audio only interview but there is film made by Christine of Capucine sailing out of Marseille)

”I like the sense of solitude and the sense of power being on a ship gives me. I like the being partway between the sky and water on the boat.”
— El Kouch Abdesselam a crew Jacque’s Ferry boat Sete, France

”People have been eating wild oysters and mussels from the Sete lagoon since at least the Roman times and maybe even prehistoric times. For ages you had fat people living on the shores”

”I and 19 other oyster growers decided to develop a way of capturing and growing their oysters from local larvae instead of buying ones from the Atlantic ocean. The idea was to make the business more sustainable both environmentally and financially. I was the first to open up my business to students and tourists by teaching kids, and holding tastings for the adults. ”

” It’s (Sete Lagoon) a very productive zone because we have all these hills around with mild waters that get into the lagoon and it makes a lot of phytoplankton, which the oysters feed on. So they keep on feeding on plankton. Because we have no tides either, they are always in the water so they are always feeding. It’s quite mild in my region, so there are not very many cold months. They feed ten months a year. They stop one month in summer when they are reproducing and maybe one month in winter when the waters are really cold between 2 and 5 degrees and even then they keep feeding.”

”We decided that we want to stay as we are – local, respecting the environment, respecting the workers, not going towards a novel economic activity. It’s hard sometimes but we are happier about what we have done because we are true to what we are.” She is part of the local slow food movement.

Her favorite part of the day is looking out at the lagoon day by day especially sunrise during the summer when it looks like Sete is on fire.
“It’s worth it.”
— Annie Casteldo- oyster woman, at oyster farm in La Marseille(?) Sete, France

His grandfather fished in sailing boats off the coast of Sete and in the lagoon. He says some of the old men who help him remember the old sailing fishing boats. It was not that long ago — in the 50’s. Jean Luis first remembers going on a boat when he was around 8 poling and open shift through the shallow lagoon looking for shellfish.

“We would lie on the boat with the magnifying glass in the water so we could see the bottom beneath us…. if we were fishing for small mussels, I had to select the small mussels and detach them from the support so they would be cleaner and we could sell them to the growers.”  — Jean Louis Lambert, Small boat fisherman in Sete. Interview conducted on his boat

”We’ve got our spots. It’s having different species that make up a day. It might be rouget, lobsters, maybe 10 kilos. It can go up to 20 kilos, but it is quite seldom. Bits of bits makes the day so you have to turn to different species and techniques.”

“For lobster it is easy it is a sandy coast. So if you go for lobster you need rocks. So everyone knows where the lobsters are. Rouget it’s different. Lately I have been catching them right outside the harbor. So you put the nets and if you catch the fish you put the nets there again and if you don’t catch fish, you go to another place. It depends on the weather as well. Fish see the mesh, if it’s too clear, the moon is too bright, and you won’t catch it. If it’s windy and the fish come to feed it will be caught in the nets. It depends on a lot of different parameters. The fish doesn’t grab into the nets because things have evolved and you can put kilometers and kilometers of nets out and you won’t catch anything.”

****He says the fish see the nets in the lagoon because it is such a rich environment that it does not take long for marine algae and detritus to collect on even the thinnest of net strands.

Jean Luis also describes a process of hunting for durado in the lagoon. It is one of the few times that small-boat fishermen work together.

“You go around the tables because they are shells and the durados are attracted by the shells. You put your nets around the tables. It’s a collective action. You make noise and put light so the fish should explode and go into the net. But sometimes it doesn’t work and there’s hardly a few fish. During the fall time when the fish go out to open sea, you take millions of them – tons of them. So the fish was in the lagoon during summer but you didn’t manage to catch it.”

****(On changing weather)”If you have changing weather, even it’s not good for the fish… for example in summer the fish comes to the land but if it is windy and too rough even the fish don’t know where to go.”
— Jean Louis Lambert, Small boat fisherman in Sete. Interview conducted on his boat

****”I say the first child in my household is my ship because my first daughter was born in November and my ship was launched in July and “baptized” as part of the festival of Saint Peter, the patron saint of fishermen.”

****(on young people going into fishing today”They said you will never make it but I made it. So maybe they (the young people) will make it as well. So that is why I cannot be pessimistic.”
— Pierro, D’Acunto, 54 , trawler captain and member of Italian community in Sete, France

****”The Genoese are come to Tabarka not as invaders but as fishermen. They came for two centuries , they have worked with indigenous and they founded a Genoese counter to sell corals and seafood or not Tabarka in Tunisia and Algeria but sold mainly in Europe and especially corals Italy.”

****”There is a beautiful story , a fantastic story , it is a king who had a son , Prince . The prince loved a beautiful local girl . They live somewhere here on the fort, there was not strong at the time, there was a citadel of the legend . And son loved a pretty girl, but this pretty girl was doomed to a fisherman. She loved fishing , but not the king’s son , Prince . So as the prince wanted to , he wanted to avenge her, he took her and he killed her . And the blood flowed to the sea , and the sea the blood is cooled and became just the tree called coral. Of course the story is very long , we talked about the passion, the love between the fisherman and the young girl and then how the prince came to take her by force … it all led prince revenge of her and kill her and the blood flowed from his body went to the sea , it is cooled and was frozen and became the coral. This is the legend of coral, called in Arabic ” morjeda .” ” Morjeda ” is the name of a girl , the girl who lived just a small town.”
— Triki, Moktar Tabarka Tunisia historian

****”Tabarka is a phoenecian word meaning the shadows of the trees.
The forests used to come right down to the shore and cork was a major export item from here.”
— Sebti Mlaiki, Tabarka historian

“Going back to the history of Genoa Tabarka , that is to say the period 1541-1741 , there was a lot of desire and a lot of problems, everyone wanted to acquire the island of Tabarka , even by force, which resulted in the Bei Tunis chase everyone and capturing nearly 900 slaves and bring them to Tunis. They spent a few months in jail and they were bought by the King of Spain . But before the King of Spain had also bought the slaves who were taken hostage by the Dei Algiers . Why the King of Spain has bought ? Precisely to populate the island of Tabarka Nueva in front of Alicante , Spain. It was a policy of stocking or settlement of the Mediterranean islands against barbarian invaders , especially privateers.”

****”At that time there was a sailor who was walking beside the sea in the region near the be and found the Madonna Slave . For them it was a big party , providence , it coincided exactly with the day of the liberation of slaves . Then they said that God had sent the Madonna to save the slaves and bring in a European city . That is to say, they became free now with this Madonna. They brought this Madonna in Tunis, have a Mass at the Cathedral of Tunis and then they returned again to Carloforte and this is where ‘ they founded a church that exists now. Well, we do not pray every day, but masses and feast, the feast of Our Lady in June every year. These people they lived until today with the descendants in the island which is called Nueva Tabarka , and Tabarka also it is called for short as ours.”

****”The Carlofortini are a mix of Italians and Tunisians , that is to say those who speak a special language , a mix of Arabic Tunisian and genoa. This is not the Genoese language, it is not Italian or Tunisian is a Sardinian mixture and also with a special accent. You go and you go to Carloforte Sant’Antioco or Cala Setta you hear a particular accent, it does not mean that the Italian in Rome or Milan or elsewhere.”
— Triki, Moktar Tabarka Tunisia historian

****”The “shesh, a word that also means the scarf coverings used by desert people over their heads, is the desert wind that comes from the south. It is not good for fishing. The winds that bring fish into the nets come from the Northeast and northwest. ”

****”There are less fish than there used to be but the price is higher so I am still able to make a good living. I worry a bit about the long-term health of the fisheries and would support stopping fishing for a couple of months to let the marine life rebound.”
— Hedi Briki – 58 year- old fisherman Tabraka

“****Coral is a form of writing or language of the sea – like words of the deep.”

“Coral is good for the circulation. Worn next to body, it can help keep you healthy. In India they put a branch of coral with the body of a dead person to ward off the evil eye. Coral is also used in the manufacture of artificial limbs and body parts.”
— Mokhtar Saoudi – coral artisan, Tabarka

“In 2000 we started using helium/oxygen mixed gasses to do deeper. You needed a special license to dive with mixed gases and decompression chambers on board the boats. And we started going down to 120 meters to harvest coral.”

“The pay is good. Divers earn 50 percent of the price of the coral harvested. The rest goes to the boat owner.”

****”The diver was working at depth, cutting coral and putting it into a net basket to haul back to the surface. He put the basket on his head to use both hands and the web of the basket got caught on his tank. So instead of cutting it free – the normal procedure, the diver decided to take his tank off. The tank started riving fast and the diver went up with it — much faster than he would normally surface. He spent 7 hours and 30 minutes in a decompression chamber before being sent to a military hospital in Tunis. He is no paralyzed from the waste down.”

****”Typically there is one accident per season among Tabarka’s coral divers.”

“Before Tunisian divers started using mixed gases, they used to go into Algerian waters to harvest coral. There were some fights. Now divers just dive deeper to cut coral. Typically they work on day trips close to Tabarka and on 15-day trips around Isle De Gillette to harvest coral. There is a place to seek shelter of conditions get too rough.”

****”In 1984 there was coral everywhere in shallow waters, 30, 45, 60 meters. Over 700 families were harvesting the coral. Many did not dive for it but used the cross of Saint Andrew, a wood cross with a net and a chain to drag, break and snag coral. There were some big boats that made giant cross from railroad ties.”

****”Coral brings you luck if you know how to invest and manage the money.”

****”I don’t want my children to become coral divers. I know how dangerous it is. I want them to go to university and become professionals.”
— Zouaoui Lassaad – Coral diver, Trabarka

(a cure/punnishment for infidelity) “There is a plant with two black seeds. When a woman wants to punish a man, she goes to someone who tells her to take one of the two seeds and feed it to the man. He will become unable to have an erection. The only cure is to eat the second seed and you have to go back to the woman who did it to get the seed. I know people who have had this done to them. I want to find out scientifically, how it works.”

(a cure to keep a woman a virgin till she is married)” Usually it’s the mother who comes wanting the cure. They take a grain of wheat and write something on it and make a slit in the skin beneath the knee and put the seed there and let the skin close over it. They will take a second grain of wheat, write something on it and bury it. This will keep the girl virgin till the day she marries.”

“I know this is true because I have made love to a woman who had this done and it was impossible to get through.”
— Helali Zouhaier – ungent merchant and producer working with traditional medecine.

****”When I started there were only at most 6 big boats. The others were small sailing fishing boats like mine. In those days when you go to fish, you get fish. The problem came with the big boats, the trawlers. They take all the fish. For us the biggest problem is the trawlers because when they drag their nets across the sea, life is done.”

****”It has become a big problem because there are a lot of families eating from the sea. In every big boat there are four to five families. They do what they have to, to feed their families. They fish illegally. You can’t stop them. The problem is from the beginning the economic situation.”

****”I was out fishing with my wife. We were fishing for Octopus. It is a wonderful day. 25 to 50 kilos of octopus, which for him is an exceptional day. But when I was coming back, the wind picked up and all the octopus ended back in the sea. The sea gave to me and took from me. I am a fisherman.”

“Here they have their techniques. They put stick into the sea to anchor the boat against the storm. They have to stay two or three days out sometime because of the storms. There aren’t many accidents here but 14 years ago three people died. The ***cooperation between the fishermen during storms is perfect. So all together they help each other. Now with equipment and weather forecasts they don’t have problems. When there is a storm they stay at home. ”
— Abdel Latif Warda fisherman on sailboat in Kerkennah, Tunisia

The sail on the Loude can be adjusted even the angle of the mast to get more speed. The mast is designed to move. The sail in the loude is not a triangle like the Lateen sail but is in a square. It’s not used for fishing because it is large and heavy and the fisherman can’t use it in the shallow waters near Kerkennah. It was perfect for going from Sfax to Kerkennah and was use to deliver goods. They changed the traditional structure to make it more useful for them. In the beginning they used it as a tender – to support the smaller fishing boats. They used it as a base and would sleep there and store supplies there.

(story of Borgedah and the Pirate) “Bordedah, the president after the Second World War came here. It was tough for the town. Boregebah wants to escape from the French, so he comes here. He stayed with a family Shmehhah and he contacted some pirates and the captain smuggles him to Egypt on this boat in the night. This boat is so important to the history of Kerkennah and Tunisia. The boat was in a museum when Borgebah returned to government and then they discarded it but now there is a project to put it in a new museum.”

“We don’t know the history. They say the Latin sail came from Egypt… before the Italians, Greeks or Romans came… More probably from the Phoenicians came first then after the Latin sails.”

****”The old fisherman they know exactly the ocean in the area. They know the color of the sea and the natural area around Kerkennah. Every time we find the channel. Every channel has its name and everyone knows the distance and the fishermen from Kerkennah know the entire place and use the color of the water to find their way. They learn it as a young person. It depends on the boat and knows what route to take.”

****”Story of king and Queen who gave sea land to people because they were poor and needed to have a source of income… so she gave them land in the sea to fish and farm… This ownership of land is place for fish traps and the other land further away to fish… advantage is they can work different parts of the sea depending on water… The other place is fishing the far waters near undersea mountain”.

All the big captains today in the Navy come from Kerkennah still

****”Since forever it is the fish here… people have this village near the harbor… so everyone is with the sea and the fish..We can’t talk about the relationship with the sea because we cannot separate the Kerkennah man and the sea because the Kerkennah man is the sea. For the land in Kerkennah is so small. It is so big with the sea so the Kerkennain man is the sea… the cooking is the sea… When we have fish at home it is a party so everyday is a party for the Kerkennah man.”
— Friha Abdel Jelil – a teacher who grew up on Kerkennah fishing.

****”The real problem is the wind. This year we stayed one month without going out and another time two weeks not able to go out because the wind was too strong…The difference before we could predict the time of the storms and the winds… now it is unpredictable. We cannot read the sea anymore.”

****He tells story of village that go so desperate they try to go in boats to Italy but police stopped them. It was because the trawlers destroyed the fishery… this was last year…
— Houcine Souissi – fisherman in his boat , Kerkennah, Tunisia

****”I started fishing when I was 6 years old. I went with my mother to the sea. They tried to stop me but they can’t. Since then my work is in the sea. I kept working till my health stopped me.”

****”I am the first girl child who fished… I liked it so much, I go out. My family was poor. My mother had nine children. If I don’t work, my family don’t have anything to eat. My father had problem with his hands, so I had to go to get something for the family to eat. I worked to eat.”

“My problem with the women. All the men loved me and helped me. When I am with the men, they respect me. When my husband was sick, I go with 6 men and I have a child and I worked like the men. The men said do the easy jobs, so I said no and did the heavy work alone.”

“I went out and speared octopus with a spear and squid… (describes work)… This is a kind of fish that goes under the rocks,… they are pairs. if you catch the woman, the man stays there. If you catch the man, the woman escapes, so you have to know which is male and which is female to catch the female fish first so you can get both.
On the side is white, the other is a bit grey… let him sleep…. have to know the woman from the man…nThe female has the same color so the men have the stripes…”

***”In those days there were so many fish that you could just walk around the island and get fish… but now with the nets, women don’t do it…”

“People were so poor so they have to work and don’t go to school. We used candles for the light… they mixed gas with water to stretch it… and faces were black with soot.”

****”I am the captain woman, who go into the heart of the sea, I am married with the sea and the fisherman and give my baby the milk of the sea. The sea does not make me cry like the people who criticize me but I love the sea…”

***”They don’t have light… they don’t have nothing… feel the way with the pole and I touch the bottom and I know where I am and like this I can find my way…”

“Live days and dead days for fishing… 5 and 10… I learned this from my grandfather… (talks about the live and dead days)…The first day in the moon month is number five in life… and 25 is dead…”

She talks about maintaining a henna hands and feet on the boat while fishing…

“The first when we get a little boat I put the baby there and then we get the fish and when we have the fish, I move the baby and put the fish there. After a time we had a big boat and I make a fence between the motor and the rest and they play in the rest of the boat.”

****The school teach children that there are 6 winds. I know 16 and she lists them and what they are good for in Arabic
— Saida Jalleli, woman fisher in Kerkennah

“… the land is being polluted by salt with the rise of sea water…”

“All Kerkennah is fishermen… even if you have other job… when he has time we fish… 2000 have boats professionally… 14 thousand number of fishermen is 5 thousand… about a third of the people here are fishermen…”

****”Another we don’t talk about is the petroleum development… now petrol and gas and there is a study under Kerkennah is huge deposit… the well for Petroleum being discussed… the problem is pollution of petroleum… now the problem is this company will threaten the fish… The activity of fish will increase for sure… because we are protecting the fish but with petrol is the big threat now. I think the big companies will be a big problem when they come here.”

****”The study says the temperature is 1 1/2 degree higher, the storms are increasing and the rain comes in short periods and hard intensity… hotter and more rains… extremes…
We are seeing more storms… in this month you don’t usually feel any wind but now you see the wind…”

****”the level of the sea is increasing and when it rises it is eating the land… in December you can see it… eat the house… see palms in the sea.”

“We see new invasive plants… (names the plants ) and some new kind of fish here and phytoplankton here… from red sea fish moving in… this is toxic kind of fish… can’t eat it… some we can eat… but not all of them…
They (fishermen) are trying to adapt to the new fish… (talks about some of the changes of gear)…Like octopus change gear… use rock… then pots, and now cement…”
— Morsi Fkhih – Kerkennah project director

***”True story… I am on sailboat with old man old fisherman. He does not see very well. He ask me to go to the bow to see the light… He ask me if I can see it. I don’t see anything… 2nd and third time … look with stick to touch the bottom and I say I touch and it is not very strong… When he hears the sound of the bottom, he tells him the light is off today and we are in the right place…
Just to hear the contact of the water and the boat, he knows where he is.”

****”The fisherman is not a grand navigator but they know this area and the fish….
Shafia….
One time it was winter…..we are gong to fish and my parent fish at 4 kilometers at north of island and the old man says you will find this fish in this place and not in the other… because of the wind comes from this side and the fish responds…

The fish shafiah is to have migration of fish… the fishermen know very well the path the fish take and when they will come and how to catch fish…”

****”The sand flies… If they bite you that means the wind will come from the north…”
— Slah Ben Amor – Kerkennah artist and son of fishermen

****”This young people with this association are trying to change things… idea of stop fishing…it’s good the sea can have some rest… this entire place works like this and nobody fight with each other…”.
— Salah ben mohamed el beji ,0ld fisherman 65 years ,Gannouch, Gabes

****Economically it is harder every day than yesterday and the sea does not give us what we need like in the old days.
— Mogia wife of fisherman, Gannouch, Gabes Tunisia

****”I start fishing in 1960. When we got here it was like a virgin girl. It was a virgin beach. The old persons were here, but they respected the sea. They didn’t pollute. They loved the sea like his mother or his father. ”

****”But this new generation, they don’t have the same love and the same relationship with the sea. They start in 1975 and 76. They came and start fishing with big gear and bottom trawlers.”

****”One time I had to go out to seven meters depth and I found a very big track done by the bottom trawlers. There was nothing left, no plants no fish and nothing… and they kill the Gulf of Gabes with the chemical plant and these trawlers…. ”

****”In the past we used the shafria… it is a peaceful way. The fish choose to enter. In the past we respect fish and the fish chooses to give himself or not… but now they use other more violent techniques. The have to take fish in every way.”

***”I can tell what kind of fish… hearing jumping fish can know the distance and weight… With his jump I know the kind and weight… This kind of fish they enter in the water with head, the other with the stomach… the only kind with this sound.”

***”And fish is like fruit in the land. Every season has his kind.
Now nobody respects the season.”

“In the past they had lots of information and knew how to live with the beach…. but they did not have money or many things. Now they have things and money but they don’t know anything about the sea.”

“In the summer it is (Arabic name of wind) in the winter (name of wind) of the west is best. Shargi is east…
(barnaid ishloo is northeast and southeast… The little sister of the Shargi – the east… (More names of the winds)…

Like we said you could find every fish in the season but in the season you have to take just the fruit of the season.

Smea is the north and glebeth sound. They come but later… ”

“It is not about luck — you need to know the sea and you will have fish. It is about capacity not luck.”

***”When you can talk with the sea, he will tell you about he storm… if you find octopus up in the boat not down deep then you know there will be a storm in 24 hours. If you are prepared you can escape form the storm. If you are arrogant that is you problem.”

****”I have a story about when I went out for some friends. They are not fishermen and we go to fish. I see that a storm will come in the night and I come back and ask them to sleep so we can take the boat out in the morning. I was so tired so I go to sleep. The take the boat out in the night. I was sleeping. I just wake up and hear a storm coming. It was a very strange storm. I don’t see anything and for three hours I fight to go out… 3 kilometers… it is very hard… but usually I don’t go out in the storm because you can’t fight the sea. ”

****”For example with a friend… I tell them we need to go out because I hear the wind on the other side of the island. They laugh and then after a while I say the wind is in this place and I say we have to go back to shore… but they laugh and they don’t listen to me. After 20 minutes we are in the storm and we fight a long time to get to safety.

With the sea you cannot be arrogant.”

“The sea for us is father, mother, and brother and like this we communicate with him… and because of this I never had a storm except one or two because I was with other person.

***The storm tells you after one hour… you just have to listen… but others go to death by not listening. ”
— Rachid Ghraibi Old man in Djerba beach 62 years

***”In the past there were only a few fishermen and the sea was so rich with fish…
The old motor … a motor for boat… my father had one. In this past it was this type of small motors and sail. They used the sail as emergency transport when the motor failed. The sea is not as rich as it was in the past. Now the fish is less and less. And now we have this problem of people who are not fishermen, who have other jobs and they buy boats and go fishing when they have time. They don’t know the sea but there are a lot of them and they take a lot of fish. It is not fair because we live form the sea and they have another job.”

***”You have to respect the sea… have to take all the gear and be organized. if you make a little mistake you can die.”

“The northeast for us the worst because it comes with a storm and the sea becomes so dangerous.”

***”The bigger problem is the new kind of net. They call them invisible nets and they come from Japan and they are killing the sea because they take everything.”

****”We have another problem in Galete Island. Another fish comes. His name is Shaori comes… when he comes all Bizerte can eat this fish. He is delicious and he comes just once a year. Now they have protected this area and we can’t fish. In the season we used to harvest 30 to 40 tons of this fish and he can help the economy…”

****”And now they even a new way of fishing…. For example with the gun… they take shot and cause it the fish — blood — use of explosions in the sea… fish are changing home and you can’t find the new home….

And they just hurt them and fish die without being taken…”
— Hamda Jaziri Ben Salah, head of fishing family 69 years old, Bizerte

What you see is a traditional way of living… becoming more rare but becoming touristy…no law against it but not keeping pigs or goats in village en mass because of flies and cleanliness… like they did befor… Due to visit of agriculturist 20 years ago. They used to plow around olive tress but he said plow hurting shallow roots… now using sheep because they eat grass and shit and feed trees.. not goats b ecause goats will eat leaves of trees…. now they are directing trees to grow upwards to allow sheep to get closer to tree…

Now they have innovated as well. Traditionally the island was all rocks. They reclaimed the land by collecting the rocks… been going on for centuries — now have massive piles of these rocks. Now they are thinking about how to use those rocks… using rock mulch under olive trees… replacing the sheep… don’t need sheep… the grass is growing and imediately decomposing and feeding the olives…

(croatian….)
25:10 Poem begins in Croatian 25:50 poems ends…

The whole story of the piles, they used to put crosses on them and used them for orientation… that was a poem about those piles and how they changed into use in olive groves….

You have two big diasparas… One is to San Pedro in Callifornia… they carried all the wine knowledge and fishing… over strong over there in wine production… strong link now… from Dalmatia island. The second group in Southern Chili…
Poem is about father and uncle relaxing under the tree after a hard day’s work 36:44

36:44 Poem begins
(croatian) 40:55 poem ends with laughter and comments in Croatian

This is a poem about the island of Broc….
Croatian 41:10

41:40 Poem begins in Croatian with title Broc…. Poem ends 42:47.

45:41 poem begins Babalonska — about hotel at old fish plant) in Croatian…
48:46 (poem ends)

****This is interesting. This poem explains how his art is used in current affairs. The new factory has just been opened. The old factory there is a proposal to make it into a seven story hotel. Local people along with architect ask for a poem in support of preserving how it should look. Poem is called into citidel of Babalon… talks about the way money comes in and devides a community…

40 to 50 years ago this was the case… now it is different. Had two waves of immigration one in 1900 when vines were affect. The second in 1920 with Spanish flu. At that time Broc had 30 thousand inhabitants – now it has 13 thousand. Postira had three thousand . Now it has one thousand. Lots of immigration has been a huge number of people left. After those waves of immigration… the traditional ways of inermarriage… changed… and broke down and became more modern….
(croatian) 56:00
Basically the immigration played a massive part… people are now having hands in many economies… in tourism, agriculture, fishing…

****There is no more traditional fishing… have big fleets of industrial fishing… transfer into pens west of the island and fatten them up… Japanese fleet take the fish according to the quotas… and the rest is used elsewhere…. no more small fishing as there used to be..

****There used to be small fishermen in Postira… new generation doesn’t want to do it so it is gone mostly… On the east of island called Sumartin where there is now is quite a large number of fishermen… they supply….
(Croatian)
1:04:31… one of the people from this place has gone to Callifornia and become famouse…. the way they are pulling out nets — roller furler — invented it from Broc of Sumartin….

The mechanism is name after him somewhat….

archeologist… claiming that one of the places around here is Troy… and Saint Paul sailed by here to Jerusalem… before renaisance… the Chinese fleet came here and brought discoveries to Leonardo… busy route….
(Croatian) 1:32:57…
Southern Slav people have been part of other people’s empire… list of all the fighting…. busy battle grounds….

***When the southern wind hits the island like full moon people go crazy… Yugo wind…

Q…
Bora… sera is northeast… (list of winds…. In ccoratian 1:40)…. Yugo is southern winds with Labeach…
Talks Bora is northeast…
The southern ones are a bit iffy for the people…
Q
(looks for poem)
3:20 (Crioatian reads poem) 3:57 poem ends… and More Croatian talk … trying to find another poem read later….

Christine Handte

Legends of the Mediterranean

Cadaques, Spain

Seapeople Heritage & Climate Emergency