Preprint volume - SIBM

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