ANCHOVY FISHING
Noli Ligure – fishing for anchovies on the Mediterranean
On a visit to Italian friends who lived in Noli, a small beach town on the Mediterranean, I arranged to go fishing with local anchovy fishermen. Fishing for anchovies has not changed for hundreds of years except that in modern times fishermen use motors on the boats and electric lights instead of whale oil lamps. I was told to arrive at the beach after dark because fishing for anchovies has to be done when it is dark. It is done only on nights that have a small moon and calm oceans. Anchovy fishermen attract the fish by their lights and don't want to compete with the light of a full moon.
I climbed in one of their fishing boats and we were off. Four small boats go out at a time. The first boat has a motor and pulls the others along behind. When they are far enough from the shore they make a big circle. They drop a large net and each boat turns on its lights to lure the anchovies to the surface above the nets. Each fishermen pulls up his nets to catch the fish and then all the boats move toward the lead boat, gathering the anchovies as they go, and dump the catch into the boat. While this was the summer and quite warm on the beach during the day, it was very cold out on the open sea at night. And I mean cold. By the time we finished fishing the next dawn I was completely wiped out. While it was an adventure for me, for the fishermen it was a hard night of fishing with a pretty mediocre catch.
On a visit to Italian friends who lived in Noli, a small beach town on the Mediterranean, I arranged to go fishing with local anchovy fishermen. Fishing for anchovies has not changed for hundreds of years except that in modern times fishermen use motors on the boats and electric lights instead of whale oil lamps. I was told to arrive at the beach after dark because fishing for anchovies has to be done when it is dark. It is done only on nights that have a small moon and calm oceans. Anchovy fishermen attract the fish by their lights and don't want to compete with the light of a full moon.
I climbed in one of their fishing boats and we were off. Four small boats go out at a time. The first boat has a motor and pulls the others along behind. When they are far enough from the shore they make a big circle. They drop a large net and each boat turns on its lights to lure the anchovies to the surface above the nets. Each fishermen pulls up his nets to catch the fish and then all the boats move toward the lead boat, gathering the anchovies as they go, and dump the catch into the boat. While this was the summer and quite warm on the beach during the day, it was very cold out on the open sea at night. And I mean cold. By the time we finished fishing the next dawn I was completely wiped out. While it was an adventure for me, for the fishermen it was a hard night of fishing with a pretty mediocre catch.
Click on a photo to enlarge it.
Anchovy fisherman departs about midnight clad in hip-high boots and carries a warm jacket.
Fisherman carries lamp to attach to his boat.
Anchovy fisherman launches his boat at midnight.
Lamps attract anchovies to the water's surface.
Anchovy fishermen pull in nets and dump anchovies in boats.
Lamps off, fishermen row to a fresh area to fish.
With the dawn breaking, the anchovy fisherman return to the shore with their catch.