"Fishing With My Cousins" Calasetta Travelogue by giampiero6

As a child, I grew up playing on the fishing boats and little row boats of my uncles and cousins. I'd spend lazy afternoon wasting time, mending nets, setting tiny crab traps, pearl diving, rowing. It was magic. Some of my fondest memories are of going out on the traditional wooden with my cousins as they pulling in nets of strange animals, skates, spiny scorfani, big blue tunas, eels, squids, and most impressively octopus. My uncle used to kill them by biting them between the eyes while the tentacles grasped and curled around his head. What a sight!

The Net Marker

The boats leave early in the morning before dark and reach the markers for their nets around dawn. Underneath a rows of small nets about 8 feet high sit at the bottom collecting today's catch.

Hoisting the Nets

Things are a big more mechanized now and 2 guys can haul in the nets over the wheel.

A Pagaro

Here's the days first catch a big plump and highly prized pagaro.

S. Pietro Fish

This is a San Pietro Fish..wierd looking an spiny but very tasty! I can attest.

Skate or Raza

This is a ray that was caught. It's a little wierd cause from underneath they look like they have a human face with eyes and a mouth. The wings are cut off and used in soups and stews.

Orata I think?

This half eaten fish fell prey to a dolphin who cruise the nets and grab the choicest spots. It's heartening and sad to hear my cousin moan about the dolphins wreaking havoc on the fish, cause it means that they're around.

Sepia or Cuttlefish

This is a cuttlefish or sepia (from whose ink the term sepia comes) The strange chalky floating bones of the cuttlefish always fascinated me as a child and are the title of one of Eugenio Montale's most famous collection of poems.