Preprint volume - SIBM
Preprint volume - SIBM
Preprint volume - SIBM
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Pre-print Volume – Oral presentations<br />
Topic 3: INTEGRATED COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT<br />
F. ANDALORO, T. ROMEO, M. GORACCI*, V. INCONTRO*<br />
High Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), STS of Palermo, Laboratory of Milazzo<br />
Via dei Mille, 44 - 98057 Milazzo (ME), Italia.<br />
franco.andaloro@isprambiente.it<br />
*Marine Protected Area of Plemmirio, Piazza Euripide, Siracusa, Italia.<br />
REDISCOVERING OLD FISHING TRADITIONS IN SICILY:<br />
HISTORY AND CULTURE OF SMALL-SCALE FISHERY<br />
RISCOPERTA DI ANTICHE TRADIZIONI IN SICILIA:<br />
STORIA E CULTURA DELLA PICCOLA PESCA<br />
Abstract – Fishermen’s knowledge and historical and archaeological information on the gear-use system<br />
and on the fishing cultural heritage of Sicilian small-scale fishery were investigated. The documentation<br />
and efforts to recover old fishing traditions and the application a sustainable development of, in<br />
accordance with the purposes of the integrated coastal zone management (ICZM).<br />
Key-words: small-scale fishery, historical heritage, fishing gears, Sicily.<br />
Introduction – Small-scale or artisanal fishery using harpoons, nets, hooks and more<br />
elaborate gears, was one of the human ancestral activities, based on a harmonious<br />
relationship between coast dwellers and marine environment. It has been slowly<br />
evolved by acquisition of basic technologies, improving boats and catch systems and<br />
also knowledge on preys’ ethology and ecology. As in other Mediterranean areas<br />
(Farruggio et al., 1993), Sicilian small-scale fishery greatly varies in space and time by<br />
adapting its strategies and systems to the circumstances and to the availability of<br />
different resources, so making this activity flexible, polyvalent and opportunistic. The<br />
thousands of related trades, the culture, the colours, the flavours and the rituals of this<br />
traditional activity contributed in creating the genius loci of many fisheries in islands,<br />
becoming in the collective consciousness, steeped in such literary works as I<br />
Malavoglia by Giovanni Verga, the very epitome of fishery.<br />
However, the present economic system, dominated by the tendency to maximize<br />
profits, has penalised the small-scale fishery driving it into a state of crisis, amplified<br />
by the co-existence of parallel organised activities such as industrial fishery and by the<br />
market globalization caused by foreign imports from all over the world.<br />
For this reason, since 1990 the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) has singled<br />
out the revival of small-scale fishery as a necessary step for a sustainable development<br />
of Mediterranean fishery, for its advantageous relation, as compared to industrial<br />
fishing, between costs, profits and environmental impact. The revival of small-scale<br />
fishery can only be undertaken as part and parcel of a wider governance of the coast<br />
which represents today one of the most important European aims and strongly urged by<br />
the Mediterranean action plan of the UNEP (the United Nations Environment<br />
Programme).<br />
Small scale fishery shows even now great potential not exclusively centred on catches,<br />
but also expressed through its social as well as cultural, historical, archaeological,<br />
ethnological, musicological and gastronomic significance intrinsic to this trade which<br />
represents the oldest primary activity of man in Sicily.<br />
The aim of this research was to explore the fisherman’s knowledge and the historical<br />
and archaeological data as source of information on the gear-use system and on the<br />
41 st S.I.B.M. CONGRESS Rapallo (GE), 7-11 June 2010<br />
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