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been taking place for centuries. Through adaptation, the remaining tonnare have managed to

endure. But is it enough for the trap to endure when the local socio-cultural context has been

so transformed? Is this simply a matter of classification?

If we understand the tonnara as a relational entity then we can better understand the

transformations. A relational approach moves away from a cause and effect approach, which

as Abrahamsson et al. (2015) have argued, dominates weak versions of new materialism.

Rather than conclude that materialities are involved in political conundrums or suggest that

one thing affects another, we should push the analytical inquiry to ask, ‘what do the

circumstances afford and which responses should be considered’ (Abrahamsson et al. 2015,

p. 16). As I have argued, the circumstances of the contemporary tonnara have afforded very

little in the way of continuing the mattanza and legitimate practices of preserving tuna.

Rather, the contemporary circumstances that have afforded the tonnara the opportunity to

continue as a trap include: the particular form of fishery governance with its mythologies of

single species management and MSY; the technologies and techniques available through

fattening ranches; the relationships between owners and marine scientists; and companies

driven by capital gains from markets hungry for fatty tuna. The continued scientific research

in the traps has also afforded the traps the possibility to secure its future. Now we can ask

what the new situation of the tonnara affords the people of these fishing communities.

If the relations among the entities that maintain the tonnara have changed, from a

food provisioning tonnara (where tuna has until recently been harvested locally) to a data

generating trap (where tuna is transferred live away from the island), this significantly

changes the possibilities afforded to fishers. As we will see, it also affects the identity and

forms of life of inhabitants of these tuna fishing islands. Within the new reality fishermen no

longer harvest tuna and trade tuna organs, or the associated practices become clandestine. In

other words, the mattanza and ways of living, labouring and knowing have been interfered

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