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current application to place the traps on UNESCOs World Heritage List (see Ambrioso &

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Xandri 2015) .

Interestingly the potential contribution of the tonnara to ongoing scientific research

has considerable bearing on its future. Fishery scientists are targeting the trap for its specific

historical and localised data. However, this aspect of the proposal and line of argument does

not come out of nowhere, rather it seems part of a strategic move to sustain the traps, or at the

least a situation where concerns coalesce to work towards the same goal of sustaining the

traps. This is evident in the efforts, over the previous five years, of numerous stakeholders

working together to conduct scientific research in the trap, and to present their findings

through a series of papers and conference. For example, several key papers published from

the ICCAT Tanger symposium in 2012, argue the significance of the traps for continued

research into tuna stock and environmental influences on tuna migration and population. The

papers argue that historic data can be drawn on to relate to contemporary data. This

essentially overcomes the problem of catch per unit effort. One such paper written by Piero

Addis and his team, argues that the results of their study:

…emphasize that data from traditional traps provide valuable long-term scientific
information about population parameters through time, and thus the use of traps as
monitoring stations should continue in the future. (Addis et al. 2012a, p. 133)

Di Natale and Indrissi (2012, p. 250) also argue that the traps offer a unique opportunity to

understand the fluctuations of Atlantic bluefin throughout the last five centuries. Alain

Fonteneau suggests that the traps should be given additional quota and that ICCAT and its

members should find ways to maintain active traps, and to ‘transform them into scientific

bluefin laboratories’ (Fonteneau 2012, p. 344). It is clear from these papers that the

conference and prior work of scientists like Piero Addis were strategic to pave the way for the

proposal in 2015, which states as one of its recommendations that the trap fishery should be

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