Traditional fishing of the Strait of Messina

The Strait of Messina, separating Calabria and Sicily and dividing the Ionian and the Tyrrhenian seas, has for millennia been a site of migrations and colonizations. The perils to travelers crossing these waters, with their raging currents and perilous winds, were documented in the Odyssey, with the monster Scylla with her “dreadful yelp” and the whirlpool of “murderous Charybdis” on either side threatening doom for sailors. Ever since “between Scylla and Charybdis” has meant being forced to choose between two dangerous situations.
The Strait of Messina is also one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the Mediterranean, an area for the transit and migration of many species thanks to its position on the border between the western and eastern basins of the Mediterranean. The seabed, littered with the wrecks of ships from every era of history, is characterized by a system of canyons that start at the narrowest and shallowest point (64 meters), called the Sella (between Ganzirri on the Sicilian side and Punta Pezzo on the Calabrian side) and reach great depths (3,000 meters and beyond) off the coast of Syracuse.
Fishing has always had a special role here. Evidence of the consumption (and therefore the catching) of tuna in the prehistoric era has emerged from the various archeological sites in the area. Pliny praised the flavor of the strait’s moray eels while the fishing of flying gurnard here was mentioned by Pausanias.
Still today, 11 fishing communities are active along the coast, using traditional techniques and selective equipment (fishing lines, traps, trammel nets, longlines). The species caught include cuttlefish, narwal shrimp, sand eels (Ammodites cicirellus), cleaver wrasse (Xyrichthys novacula), silver scabbardfish (Lepidopus caudatus) and swordfish, caught using an ancient method. Small boats called feluche have a very long gangway (35-40 meters) from which one fisherman throws a harpoon, and a very tall mast (22 meters) from which a spotter sights the fish and tells the harpoon thrower where to aim. In the past, swordfish and tuna fishing were the most important and spectacular. In 1862, Lombroso wrote of the numerous swordfish fishermen in the area, divided into small societies of 10 or 20 members who spoke a kind of very ancient Greek.
Swordfish (Xiphias gladius) have an average weight of around 200 kilos, though they can reach as much as 400 kilos when 4 meters long. The feluche catch them from April to June along the Calabrian coast and in July and August off the coast of Messina, travelling against the current so that the fish, which follows the current, is in front of them. Every feluca has their own assigned stretch of sea across which they go back and forth.
The spadare (large nets used until 20 years ago to catch swordfish but now banned because they catch enormous quantities of fish without any distinction between species) were never commonly used in the strait. The fishermen living in the villages along the coast have instead kept alive the artisanal method of catching swordfish from the feluche.