UNA GIORNATA DI PESCA GB

It’s a Monday like any other, but today the sea is calm and the air mild. At two in the morning, the fishermen begin their day.

The nets are set and loaded aboard, final checks are carried out, and the fishing boat leaves the port while the city still sleeps.

With the engine at full revs, they reach the fishing spot, chosen based on experience, the season, and the hope of a good catch. Meanwhile, the sun slowly begins to rise on the horizon.

At first light, the net is lowered into the sea for the first fishing trip. It will remain towed on the bottom for about two or three hours, in a silent wait made of habitual gestures, glances, and intuition, trying to determine if it will be a favorable day.

The fishermen’s experience is still based on empirical signals: the varying effort of the engine during towing, the tension of the lines, the time elapsed. When the time comes, the net is hauled in and hoisted aboard. The full catch bag is emptied at the stern, where the work of sorting the fish immediately begins.

Throughout the day, seagulls and dolphins follow the fishing boat, attracted by the discarded fish thrown back into the sea.

Before the sorting of the catch is even completed, the net is lowered again for another harvest. Meanwhile, the sailors arrange the fish in crates, carefully covering them with ice to preserve their freshness.

This cycle—lowering the nets, hauling, hauling, sorting, and storing the catch—is repeated incessantly throughout the day. The sailors take turns resting for a few hours in their bunks, awakened by the sound of a bell that signals the start of a new shift.

As the day draws to a close and the sea darkens, the last net is hauled in. There’s just enough time to quickly return to port and unload the catch.

It’s around 2 a.m. when the fishermen’s wives await at the dock, tasked with transporting the fish to markets and the public auction in small vans.

Once unloading is complete, the fishing boat will set sail again for a new day of fishing.

It hasn’t been a particularly profitable day, but it hasn’t been one of the worst either. Hope remains that the sea will be more generous tomorrow, despite the awareness that the constant combing of the increasingly dirty and polluted seabed is slowly impoverishing marine life.