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protocol, it’s all a bunch of lies, unless you take away the money, you need to pull
out the money, you have to come out of a capitalist logic. Capitalism does not
want to understand this thing, because it wouldn’t make any sense, but that is the
reality. So sustainability consists of eliminating money. When you eliminate
money you have a sustainable world. While there is money there cannot be a
sustainable world. (S Boghero 2013, pers. comm. 19 June).

All of the responses in this section not only demonstrate common perceptions that the

real problem is industrial fishing (indiscriminate fishing and lack of regulatory monitoring of

larger fleets) but also reveal a range of sustainability paradigms at play. The focus on the type

and size of gear could be said to place emphasis on technology, whereas others consider the

fundamental characteristics of a capitalist system as the source of the problem. Each response

highlights issues of injustice. For environmental NGOs it is often an injustice towards nature.

For fishermen and some conservationists it was the injustice towards their way of fishing.

Regardless, these discussions of sustainability demonstrate some of the different motivations,

ontologies and ethics of sustainability.

La Tonnara as Dingpolitik

The mattanza

The Giro di Tonno festival had finished a week before, and the consortium was nearing the

end of its quota and therefore the end of the season. It was a typically hot and dry

Mediterranean day relieved only by a salty breeze. The sun bounced off the white speedboat

where we stood waiting for the mattanza to begin. There had been much anticipation over the

previous month. It was the only mattanza for the season, and to date the last harvest in San

Pietro – both controversial matters. We were at the Portoscuso trap, a few kilometres out to

sea from San Pietro. Schools of sardines made ripples and small sprays in the water

indicating tuna were close-by. The atmosphere was charged as the fishermen began to pull in

the net, coercing the tuna towards the camera della morta. Fishermen grunted and heaved the

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