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Fig. 4.4 Greenpeace flyer with sub-headings reading: ‘Indiscriminate fishing? There is. A history? There is. 80%
of the stock? Missing’ (Greenpeace Italy n.d.).

The function of this chapter is twofold. In the first instance it maps out the various

people and organisations that gather around tuna and sustainability in San Pietro and

Favignana, as well as those who participate in wider tuna sustainability debates. By the end

of the chapter the reader will be familiar with the main issues and context of two tuna fishing

communities (San Pietro and Favignana) and the contemporary pressures of a global demand

for bluefin tuna, a fish nearing the edges of extinction, and the particular regulatory,

campaign and popular responses. I draw on my ethnographic research to bring out diverse

voices and positions, drawing heavily on interviews with participants, papers by scientists

working with Atlantic bluefin in the Mediterranean, media coverage and NGO

communications. The second function of the chapter is to give particular attention to socio-

technical changes of the tonnara: from the local mattanza harvest, to the use of the sea cage

and fattening ranches. I argue that the reduction of the number of mattanza (and therefore

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