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knowledge recognise innovation and diverse scales of operation, there are moments where a

line must be drawn and in some cases this act reifies binaries. I was also aware of NGO

campaigns condemning the use of sea cages and fattening ranches. I figured such a

transformation would be too controversial an innovation and would certainly question what is

meant by tradition. My conversation with Giuliano reinforced this argument and also

introduced new problems to think through.

The familiar sound of an incoming Skype call echoed through my apartment. It was

now 2015. In Sydney it was 6.30pm and spring. In Italy it was 9.30am and the days were

getting shorter and colder. We could not have been further away from the sun, salt and sea of

the fishing season in San Pietro in 2013. Giuliano was calling from his office in Genova. He

told me that only just this month in October 2015:

...the European Community presented a declaration to keep the system [tuna trap
fishing] in good health, to maintain the tradition and to register it on the UNESCO
list of intangible cultural heritage…because it is ecological, also because it
produces work, also to maintain a tradition, maintain an old tradition. (G Greco
2015, pers. comm. 7 October)

Tradition was a key word in this proposal put forward in a document called The

Future of the Almadraba Sector – Traditional Tuna Fishing Methods in the EU (from here on

referred to as EU proposal). I asked Giuliano whether the addition of the sea cage and the

fattening ranches in Malta would be a problem for the definition of the tonnara as a

traditional fishing method in the EU proposal.

Well, um the system of the cage, well that’s an obliged situation, because of poor
quota. If you have mattanza, traditional catch [methods] the costs are very high
and the results of selling tuna are very different. When we use the cage we have
no costs for catching tuna, for processing tuna, and maintaining the temperature…
When I sell the tuna by the cage I sell the entire quota, when I sell by mattanza I
catch 100 tuna and sell 75…If we had a lot of quota, then no problem, we can
have tuna for other activities like the cans, the restaurant, everyone can benefit. (G
Greco 2015, pers. comm. 7 October).

This was an argument I was familiar with. I was now interested in whether the EU held a

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