Francesco Zizola, Sale Sudore Sangue, 2020

“Years ago, pursuing my passion for the sea and its depths, I met Red tunas trapped in the nets of a Sardinian trap. A photograph taken as a reminder, but the result of a great emotion given by the power of these fish, paved the way for a continuous attendance of the community of skilled fishermen who work there. I learned from them, year after year, the complex, delicate and ancient practice of tuna fishing.
Red tuna has been fished with this technique for millennia, but only recently has this tuna species made headlines due to a sudden decline in its specimens a few decades ago. As a result of this, the international scientific community has raised the alarm and forced the governments of the coastal countries to study the problem and find solutions.
From that moment on, Red tuna fishing in the Mediterranean has been regulated and controlled even if the few existing traps have suffered unfair critical attention, especially from public opinion.
Although I’m not a scientist, it is evident from the numbers and statistics provided by the marine biologists of the various research institutes and by ICAAT, that the main responsibility for the decline in the number of tuna of this species is to be found in another fishing technique. It is a fishing technique that uses the most modern technologies and scientific knowledge to capture and kill the highest possible number of specimens.
I spent more than 6 years attending the tuna fishery of Portoscuso and Porto Paglia during the tonnara season, which is already prepared in March and April and becomes operational once placed in the water from April and May (in Carloforte, the bay of Calavinagra, opened since a year); they welcomed me with sincerity and respect and helped me to understand that with nature, which provides us with something to live only if we know how to respect its sacredness and its delicate balances, we can still enter into dialogue today.”