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THE
TUNA TRAP OF CARLOFORTE By
Annamaria "Lilla" Mariotti P
Isola di San Pietro,
(Saint Peter’s Island), is also known as the Island of Carloforte from the
name of its only town, as well as the Green island.
It was called the Island of the hawks by the Romans and is known as the
island of the Queen’s Hawks, after the falcon named for Eleonora d'Arborea who
ruled Sardinia in the XIV Century. It
is found at 39 degrees and 9 minutes North latitude and 8 degrees and 16 minutes
East longitude, or more easily by looking on the map at the southwest corner of
Sardinia. It has an area of 52.000
hectares (128,492 acres) with 30 km (18 miles) of coastline.
There are about 7000 residents but with the arrival of tourists during
the summer, the population on the island becomes at least 50.000. This
is a small island and a magic world with an ancient story. The first visitors to the island that confronted the native
Sards, with a Palaeolithic history, were Phoenicians who established trading
settlements on the shores. Carthaginians,
who coveted the copper and tin mineral resources of the southeast corner of the
island, arrived in the 7th century BC.
In the 5th century BC, there was active trading by the Greeks
from Syracuse, which is present day Sicily, who were followed by the Romans
after their conquest of the Carthaginians in 147 BC. During all that time, no
one conquered the native Sards in the interior of the island.
After the Moorish occupation of the Mediterranean in the 7th
century AD, the island remained relatively obscure until it became a shuttlecock
in the medieval era between the powerful families of Spain, the city states of
Italy and the Vatican. A
dramatic change occurred when San Pietro was colonized in 1738 by a group of
coral-fishers, who were natives of Pegli, near Genoa. About 1500 AD they had been sent to the small island of
Tabarka, off the coast of Tunisia, which at that time was claimed by the
Lomellini Family of Liguria, to harvest the precious red gold from the deep sea.
Tabarka was a small rock and the community grew during the centuries
until it was no longer possible for them to stay there.
There was no room and not enough food could be produced to support the
population of the island. In
addition, they were living on a disputed border and at a continuous risk of
raids by local pirates. They
finally succumbed to the pirates and became slaves of the Tunisian Bey, and
their conditions worsened. The
King of Sardinia at that time was Carlo Emanuele III of Savoy, who was deeply
concerned with the situation of these people.
He acted as go-between for negotiations for their release and, in the
end, succeeded in freeing the Tabarkans. He
gave them the Island of Saint Peter (San Pietro), which at that time was
uninhabited, to colonize and build a new free community.
In February 1738, 140 families from Tabarka landed on the island, and in
only two years they built a town, with a stronghold, and fortified walls. They
planted wheat and vegetables and immediately became fishermen. Even
now, they practice agriculture and fishing and these activities give them a
strength that keeps them together after 500 years and makes them a peculiar and
unique people. They
transformed their ancient Ligurian based Genovese dialect into a local language
called "tabarkino" which was spoken by everybody on the small
isolated island, from children to older people, and they keep the language and
other ancient traditions alive to this day.
When
I go to Carloforte I luxuriate on fine sand pocket beaches embedded in lava
cliffs and swim in crystal clear waters under the glorious Mediterranean sun and
azure sky. But, in addition to the
great physical pleasure of relaxing on the island and enjoying its excellent
kitchen, I also had a project in mind that had captured my imagination. I
wanted to know more about its famous fishery for the great bluefin tuna who are
captured in a very unique fishing technique on the island. The fishery uses a trap that is like a maze in the water.
To learn about the fishery, I first went to the factory where they
process the fish. It has been know
for more than 2000 years that the tuna are readily fished here in large
quantities. But when I
arrived with my camera, ready for an interview, a polite, but inflexible
security guard would not let me in. He
said that the owner was inside and he didn't like curious people.
I was not discouraged by this and after a few pictures outside the
factory; I went to seek information in another place. I
found a rich source in the small, beautiful museum that the local people have
devoted to "their" tuna trap.
It not accurate to talk of the Carloforte Tuna fish Trap, but
rather you must learn of the history of the Tuna Traps of Portopaglia,
Portoscuso and Isola Piana. In
the local history these traps, which are close to one another and in the region
called Sulcis, are in an interesting and complex way linked culturally. Catching
tuna fish with the nets has a long history in Sardinia.
It is said that the technology was introduced by the Phoenicians and the
Arabs. However, there is no documentation to support such claims.
There is no doubt that fishing for tuna has existed in the Mediterranean
since 8000 BC as bluefin vertebrae are found in ancient archaeological sites in
Greece. In the 5th
century BC there was very active commerce throughout the Mediterranean and a
major item of trade was a fish sauce called garum,
made from tuna as well as traffic in tuna meat preserved with salt or under
olive oil. The Spanish had
experience in their country with a large number of tonnara (traps) on their
coast in the Atlantic Ocean and inside Gibraltar in the Mediterranean and were a
major force in tuna fishing in the 14th -18th century. The
nets of the trap or tonnara are placed along the northern coast of the island of
San Pietro , in a well defined zone between the "Tacche Bianche" ("The
White Rocks") and "La Punta delle Oche" ("The Geese
Point"). The nets have been
placed in this precise location for longer than anyone can remember and their
location is shown on maps from the 17th century. The trap consists of a series of six chambers or rooms with a
total length of 500 meters parallel to the shore and another net leading from
the trap and perpendicular to the coast, called the "pedale" or
tail, is 1050 meters long. Nothing
can be seen on the surface as everything is underwater, except the floats that
support the nets. They appear as
orange, white and blue balloons barely disturbing the surface of the transparent
and translucent blue sea. There is nothing to tell us that there are hundreds of
bluefin that range in size from 30-300 kg placidly cruising in the trap, unaware
of what lies before them. The bluefin tuna is a pelagic fish which ranges over virtually all Atlantic Ocean, from North and South America to Europe and Africa. They live a very long time, estimates are they can be more than 50 years old, and can be more that 3 meters long and weigh as much as 1000 kg. However, in recent years it is uncommon to see one over 500 kg. The average fish caught in the traps is about 120 kg. During April and May they migrate to the Mediterranean Sea through the Straits of Gibraltar to lay their eggs (to spawn) from the Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean to the southern coast of Turkey in the east. At one time, they spawned in the Black Sea. Aristotle thought that the Black Sea was the most important site for the spawning of the bluefin, but no bluefin have come out of the Black Sea since 1985 because of pollution and overfishing.
The bluefin swim close to the shore until they make contact with the
pedale net (the tail). The pedale
net does not capture the fish but turns the tuna away from the shore to the sea,
as they realize that they are more vulnerable in shallow water and they head for
deeper water. As they travel
along the tail net, they encounter the trap. Both the tail and the
trap were originally made of coconut fiber mesh, but are now made of
nylon. The school of tuna then enters
the first room of the tuna trap, the "camera di levante"
("east room") and pass
through the different "rooms" of the trap,
with its many doors, they move into the "camera grande" ("big
room") and from there into another room the "bastardo"
and then into the "bordonaro", thence into the "camera di ponente"
("west room") and finally into the "camera della
morte" ("death room") from which there is no escape.
Some
of the practices have changed but the fundamental elements of the mattanza are
still followed. The day of the "mattanza”,
the fishermen will gather around the Rais, (the head fisherman) their hats
off, and pray together. At the end
of the prayer the Rais, with a loud voice, would say "In nome de Diu,
molla!" ("In God's
name, let go!"). This was the
signal to open the doors of the net and let the bluefin pass into the death
room. The Rais would then give a
second order: "Leva!" ("Rise"!).
At this order all the fishermen ("Tonnarotti") (the name given
locally to these fishermen) with shouts, archaic songs, and enthusiastic
salacious cries would lift the big net with the strength of their arms. The "Tonnarotti"
who are on big boats called "vascelli” and directed by the Rais, start the "mattanza".
The final event in the capture of the tuna in the trap is the harvest,
the "mattanza", a word of Spanish origin which means "to
kill". The mattanza takes
place in the camera della morte; the
room of death. As the bottom of the
net of the camera della morte lifts
the tuna to the surface, the frantic fish beat the surface off the sea into
white foam with the almost deafening sound of thrashing water made by rapidly
vibrating fins and shaking tails.
The
boats are put into a square, the net is raised and the tuna are permitted to
swim to exhaustion. When they are
quiet, the fish are hooked one by one and pulled by several men on the rope to
the edge of the boat and raised over the gunwale.
They are carefully handled to avoid bruising, a difficult thing to do
with such a large fish, and placed in the bottom of the barge.
A few skilful tonnaroti make a clean well placed incision with a knife
into an artery and the fish quickly and painlessly bleed to death.
When all the fish are harvested, they are washed, covered with ice and a
shade and hauled to the pier. The
fish are removed individually from the barge, weighed and a buyer makes a
decision on the quality of that fish, Quality
factors are the fat content of the muscle, color, muscle texture, size of the
fish (it is not always the biggest fish that has the best market value),and the
shape and overall condition. The best fish are bought for export to the Tsukiji
auction in Tokyo, Japan and the remainder enter the local market.
The fish are then moved to a clean refrigerated room for cleaning and
after cleaning they are placed in chill tanks to drop the muscle temperature.
Bluefin tuna have the ability to regulate their body temperature and keep
their muscle mass significantly higher than the temperature of the water.
The next morning they are carefully packed in ice with insulating
blankets around them in shipping containers and transported by truck to the Rome
airport where they fly first class to Tokyo.
All
the three traps in the Sulcis area are very old.
Portopaglia received its charter from the King in 1420, Portoscuso in
1654 and Isola Piana in 1698. Only
one processing plant is still working today, that of Isola Piana or, is more
accurate to say, the trap of Carloforte.
The Isola Piana Factory for the processing of tuna does not exist any
more. Several years ago, the
factory buildings on the small island were transformed into an exclusive
vacation village with shops, restaurants and resort apartments and cottages.
The processing of the fish captured in that ancient trap was moved to San
Pietro to the old processing plant and cannery in an area called "La
Punta" (The Edge). This
old method of harvest can appear to be very cruel, but the fishermen are doing
deeds that their ancestors did for centuries before them. They sing traditional
songs, together with exhortation cries, because the tuna fishing means welfare
for the whole community. If
the fishing is good, the winter will be good; there will be wood for the fire
and fresh white bread to eat and a good glass of wine.
The fishing season is short, the nets are laid in May and fishing will
last for about 45 days. At the end
of the season there is a lot of work for everybody. The nets must be pulled from the sea and repaired
for the next season. Some of
the fish to be salted or stored under oil for preservation and the ovaries of
the female are processed to make the delicious "bottarga".
All
this used to keep the population at work for the rest of the year.
But this was the past, now things are quite different; the tuna are not
fished as in the past.
"We have not had many fish this year", the fishermen say,
"Tuna must have changed their course”. The
tuna trap of Porto Paglia fishes no longer.
The Isola Piana tonnara now catches more fish than the Portoscuso trap.
In the past it was the opposite.
During the period of the 1980s, the traps were taken from the water
altogether and the canneries were closed.
The tonnaroti of Carloforte and Portoscuso did not fish for bluefin for
about 10 years. What
occurred to account for these changes?
Has there been a change in the behaviour of the fish?
It is hard to think so when the records are clear that they had not
altered their course in several thousand years.
The bluefin has not changed; it is us that have changed.
Industrial and coastal development has changed the waters of the
Mediterranean dramatically in the last 100 years.
However, the most significant difference is that a particular style of
fishing boats, called purse seiners, catches the juvenile bluefin tuna before
they become old enough to spawn even one time.
The purse seines have sophisticated instruments and used airplanes and
helicopters to find the schools of the baby fish, until their use was made
illegal by the international management agency, the International Commission for
the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
When they sight a school of tuna fishes, they lower their purse seine, a
flying "death room”, and
catch huge numbers of small juvenile tuna.
That is unlike the ancient traps, which capture only sexually mature
adult fish and do not move with the school of tuna.
The purse seiner can pursue them day after day. I
had my last meeting with the tuna trap of Carloforte in their Museum, which is
in the oldest building of the town, and where there are examples of all the
equipment used, with models and the old cans used in the tuna canning factory of
Carloforte, when there was a cannery. I saw the terrible hooks that were used
for the final "mattanza", the kind of ropes utilized to make
the nets and the ancient machinery used to manufacture them.
In the middle of a room there is a model of the tuna trap including the
nets, anchors, and floats. Dedalo
could not have built a better maze to catch the bluefin and make it possible for
the men to catch them. The
day
of the "mattanza" the
fishermen used to gather around the Rais, their hats off, and pray all together
and, at the end, the Rais, with loud voice, said "In nome de Diu, molla
!" ("In God's name, let
go !"). This was the signal
to open all the doors of the net and let the bluefin get into the death room and
then a second order : "Leva !" ("Rise"!).
At this order all the fishermen ("Tonnarotti") unbridle
themselves and in an exultation of shouts, arcaic songs, incitement cries they
started to lift the big net with the strength of their arms untill, in a
reboiling of sea-foam, fins and shaking tails ended the eternal challenge
between the man and his prey.
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