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Myths thus also contribute to the transformation of the tonnara through the particular

form of governance. Looking at the specific regional management of Atlantic bluefin through

ICCAT, we could say that the specific form of management (including myths, knowledge and

activities) enacts, what Callon and Law call, a ‘new totality’ (in Bear & Eden 2008, p. 494).

That is, a new assemblage has come into being through discourses of sustainability, the threat

of species loss and particular responses to that threat through fishery management. In this

contemporary context, the tonnara as a socio-technological hybrid entity has reconfigured

and a new tonnara has emerged made up of an assemblage that now includes fishery

scientists and legislation, and fish cages and fattening ranches. Most importantly, this is a

new ‘ontological reality’ (Hawkins & Race 2011, p. 114) for those who live by and from

tuna.

Within the norms of the global fishing industry where point of capture, harvest,

process and trade are often stretched over long distances and traverse several national

jurisdictions, it seems unremarkable to define the tonnara as a fishery (type of fishing gear

and species). It also seems acceptable that the harvest, processing and trade of bluefin now

stretch over similarly large distances. But it is worth remembering that some of the most

significant socio-cultural characteristics of the tonnara have until recently had much to do

with proximity between the trap and point of harvest and processing.

In summary, the mobilisation of tradition involves ‘establishing the borders of

permissibility’ (Schochet 2004, p. 296) and therefore defining and limiting what is, and

therefore is not, part of a tradition. The EU proposal that appeals to fishery policy by

positioning the tonnara as a traditional fishery is one example. In this case the borders of

permissibility are established first in the definition of a fishery and in naming the tonnara as a

fishery, and secondly, in the definition of tradition, and naming the tonnara as a traditional

fishery. This is an act of making possible the tonnara as a fishery divorced from its particular

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