https://www.wired.co.uk/article/underwater-sculptures-stopping-trawling
"IT’S 7 AM, and a thin layer of mist still hovers over the harbor in Talamone
as fisherman Paolo Fanciulli stretches out his nets. Pulling them out of a
plastic tub, he examines them section by section, setting the ripped ones aside
to be repaired. It’s a time-consuming process—one that’s occupied men from this
tiny village on the coast of Tuscany for centuries. But in recent years,
Fancuilli has spent more time working on ways to
protect fish than on
catching them.
The problems started, he explains, with the arrival of large-scale industrial
trawlers in the 1980s. Trailing chain-weighted nets, these boats scraped the
seabed bare, scooping up not just fish but all manner of plants and sea
creatures. Known as “bottom trawling,” the practice is illegal within three
nautical miles of Italy’s coastline, but that hasn’t stopped some unscrupulous
operators from carrying on regardless.
“You see, these are like the nets the apostles used,” Fanciulli says, gesturing
to his own equipment. “When you put them in the sea, the holes are big, and
they only catch the adult fish,” allowing the ecosystem to thrive. “It’s
sustainable fishing,” he says. By contrast, bottom trawling endangers not just
the future of local fish stocks, but the existence of one of Europe’s most
important carbon sinks.
Just offshore from Talamone lie large meadows of
Posidonia oceania, an
underwater seagrass that absorbs more carbon dioxide per hectare than the
Amazon rain forest. “We used to see these big boats—always 10, 20 at once, and
when they took away the seabed, they also took away the meadows of
Posidonia,” says Fanciulli.
Today, the waters off Talamone are calm, and the seagrass is slowly
recovering—a change that’s largely due to Fanciulli himself. After years of
battling the bottom trawlers, he hit upon a solution that’s both elegant in its
simplicity and beautiful to look at. Beneath the surface of the bay lie 39
sculptures made of white carrara marble. Carved by leading artists, including
British sculptor Emily Young, these hulking blocks are arranged in such a way
that they would snag the nets of any trawler that tried to encroach on this
zone. The result is Casa dei Pesci—the home of the fish—a unique underwater art
gallery that protects both the local ecosystem and the wider environment.
Since the first blocks of marble were sunk in 2015—and rapidly colonized by
fish and plants— the gallery has grown steadily. Managing it and fundraising
has become almost a full-time job for Fanciulli. “I am still, first and
foremost, a fisherman,” he says. “But I understand that if I just take from the
sea and don’t give back, I won’t be able to fish anymore.”"
Via
Future Crunch issue 192:
https://futurecrunch.com/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
