The Upper Adriatic is one of the most productive seas in the Mediterranean and consequently it has been one of the most exploited by fishing for centuries. Fishing trades and traditions have deeply changed over time, in accordance with technological evolution and changed social and market needs. In particular, after the Second World War there has been the industrialization of fishing, which has led to a significant increase in fishing capacity and effort and, at the same time, to an improvement in the living and working conditions of fishermen. The engine and the use of gradually larger boats have made it possible to expand the fishing areas and trowl larger and heavier tools, while the use of winches significantly facilitated the operations for retrieving the nets. In the mid-1980s, with the introduction of LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation) and subsequently of the video plotter and GPS (Global Positioning System), navigation accuracy was greatly improved, allowing the exploitation of areas that were once inaccessible because they were close to the seabed unsuitable for the trawl. At the same time, this innovation led to the disappearance of some typical crafts that had characterized it for centuries. Disappearance linked in some cases to the decline of exploited species, which made some fishing activities no longer profitable in economic terms (Giovanardi).

Seasonality: ideal period in which a species should be consumed, for a series of evaluations, such as the end of the reproductive period or presence in greater concentration. Consuming seasonal products has a lesser impact on the environment and stocks and is cheaper, as well as positively affecting the quality of the product.

Life cycle: entire sequence of stages in the development of an organism, from the fertilized cell (the zygote), the birth of that individual, which will grow, become an adult and reproduce in turn.

Fish stock: subpopulation of a species subject to commercial fishing. It is the basic unit of fishery biology.

Minimum size: minimum size below which the law prohibits the marketing of a given species, because they are not yet adults and have not completed their life cycle with reproduction.

Trawling fishing: Fishing techniques that use nets (usually bag-shaped) that fish actively by through the trawl of the net.

Pot: ancient fishing tool, still used in traditional fishing. There are different types, depending on the areas and the type of prey; the main ones are bell-shaped and barrel-shaped. The pot consists of a metal or plastic mesh with a "funnel" at the end. The bait hanging inside forces the fish, attracted by the bait, to enter by forcing the meshes positioned on the mouth of the choke. In this way the prey is then no longer able to leave the trap. The pots are generally placed offshore in the evening and recovered the following morning to replace the bait and unload the catch.

Gillnet: professional fishing gear that is placed in the sea, letting the prey reach it and get entangled in it. It is generally a rectangular net carrying floats of plastic or cork in the upper part (line of the corks) and of the weights (line of the weights) in the lower part. In the past they were mainly made of cotton, today nylon is almost universally used, practically invisible in water and with a longer duration to marine corrosion, as well as polluting in case of breakage and dispersion of the tool.

These tools are usually lowered at the end of the day and retrieved in the morning.

Bottom Trawling Net: is a net that is actively trowled over the seabed. It generally has a conical shape, with the terminal part that can be opened to extract the fish, which is called bag. During trolling, which can last up to four hours, the net is instead kept open by structures called divergents. The part of the mouth that trawls the seabed is generally armed with weights and chains, with the function of moving the sediment and making fish and other animals come out, while the upper part of the same is equipped with floats for the purpose to keep your mouth open.

Pelagic Trawling Net: it falls into the pelagic fishing category and consists of a net that is generally trowled by two boats for a maximum of 20-40 minutes and which remains suspended in the water column, without touching the bottom. At the end of each haul, the bag with the catch is recovered on board, which is sometimes so abundant to require splitting of the catch, called cuts. Main catchable species are anchovies, sardines, mackerels and mullets.

Alien species: species not native to an area, in which they have been introduced from a completely different area, generally by direct or indirect human action. Once in the new environment, these species may not survive, survive and obtain their own ecological niche, without affecting the local habitat, or survive and become invasive, even supplanting the original species.

Fishing stop: period in which a certain type of fishing is forbidden, to allow the reproduction of some target species and therefore the restocking of the stock. Each type of fishing, usually having different target species, have different fishing stops.

In the historical era we are living in, one of the most used terms in the exercise of anthropogenic activities (productive and otherwise) is that of Sustainability. Its literal meaning indicates a development condition capable of ensuring the satisfaction of the needs of the present generation without compromising the possibility of future generations to fulfill their own. That said, it is often forgotten that this reference is valid both for the natural components and for those concerning the human sphere. In summary, it is possible to summarize the concept of sustainability as the merger of three pillars, within which durability over time must be guaranteed.

The pillars are:

👉 the environmental one: a withdrawal of resources must be guaranteed that does not compromise the stocks, in order to have a continuous income over time

👉 the social one: the activities must guarantee the social dignity of all the players in the supply chain, with particular attention to local communities

👉 the economic one: the activities must (obviously) be productive, in order to sustain themselves over time, without depending on welfare policies.

The fishing sector is part of this context, which employs several thousand people and which, still in Italy, is a primary sector for many coastal communities.

At a law and conceptual level, fishing can be divided into two broad categories, which differ from each other in terms of technique, regulations and vessels:

• Small-scale artisanal fishing: it is a kind of fishing practiced with boats of less than 12 meters in length, operating within 12 miles off the coast. It is the opinion shared by the scientific world that, compared to other fishing methods, it is distinguished by the use of selective and low environmental impact gears. This is because most of the small-scale artisanal fishing gears are selective as they allow to capture only specific target species, of the desired size. This feature allows small-scale artisanal fishing to minimize unwanted catches and minimize waste.

• Industrial or semi-industrial fishing: All the fleets of boats over 12 meters in length that operate over 12 miles from the coast are grouped here. In the Adriatic Sea various fishing techniques are grouped, the most practiced are deep and middle water trawling, purse seine, longline and turbo blower fishing for clams.

To these techniques the exercise of a large ocean fishing must be added, very impacting on the environment, carried out by real ships, which often complete the processing processes already on board and which helps to supply the markets with those few over-exploited species, which are the most requested by the consumer.

In the analysis and identification of species with a different sustainability approach, respect to those commonly consumed, it is right to prefer those from small-scale artisanal fishing for two reasons. First of all, many techniques really have a high sustainability coefficient. Secondly, local species deriving from stocks with a slightly declining trend can also be considered, as it is relatively easier to apply mitigation and support measures to the stocks themselves on artisanal fishing techniques.

Biology

Mytilus galloprovincialis is present in the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Atlantic Ocean, from the English Channel to the coast of Morocco. It lives in very numerous communities, generally in the infralittoral zone, from the upper limit of the intertidal zone up to a depth of a few meters, attached to hard materials (rocks or poles) or to relatively mobile substrates in suspension (ropes) to which it adheres by means of the byssus (Bandiera, 2006). The growth salinity is around 28/34 ‰ (optimal: 27/30 ‰) and the optimum temperature is between 8°C and 25°C. The shell is black - bluish, rounded and almost triangular-shaped and made up of calcium carbonate, which the mollusc extracts from the water.

Fertilization is external and the sexes are separated and easily recognizable once the mollusc is opened, as the male has a light, almost pale colour of the flesh (the edible part), while that of the female is yellow-orange.

Fishing methods

In the upper Adriatic, M. galloprovincialis is found widely in offshore farms, which use the traditional growth technique in the so-called “reste”, plastic nets positioned in real submerged fields. The problems related to this activity are different, in particular due to the nets themselves, which with storm surges or split by the bites of animals, such as sea turtles that try to eat the mollusc, end up breaking, degrading and becoming a dangerous and abundant plastic waste, which oppresses our seas. Last but not least, the organoleptic quality of the product itself: in fact, since mussels are forced into very confined spaces within the reste, they often find themselves filtering the metabolic waste of neighbouring specimens.

However, in Marina di Ravenna, there is a minor production of mussels which derive from wild shoals that spontaneously form on offshore structures. On the market there is a product that stands out for its unique characteristics: for the production method, for the growth habitat and for the high sustainability of the entire process.

The collection and marketing of mussels is governed by Italian law (DPR n. 1639/1968), which sets the minimum size for M. galloprovincialis at 5 cm.

Which one to choose

The peculiarity of the platform mussel is that it completes its life cycle spontaneously, without plastic and without human intervention, arising from natural submerged banks and growing anchored on the substrates present offshore, choosing the position to anchor and where to spend its life cycle. Its wild nature gives this product extremely valuable and unique organoleptic characteristic. The collection takes place by a group of underwater fishermen who, every summer, between April and September, dive to collect, exclusively by hand, the specimens of adult size and send them for sale. Only the quantity of product required by the market is taken, based on daily quotas set by the cooperatives themselves, thus avoiding an impoverishment of the stock present on the platforms and putting on the market an oversized offer compared to the demand.

This technique was analysed during the PRIZEFISH project to assess its sustainability potential, with excellent results. The two fishing cooperatives that practice it have registered a collective trademark to protect their work, called “LA SELVAGGIA DI MARINA DI RAVENNA”. In fact, the consumer, by choosing the mussel bearing this trademark, will find himself tasting a product that is unique in Italy for its highly prized organoleptic properties and above all for the very high level of sustainability of its entire supply chain.

Warnings

Particular attention must be paid to the seasonality of M. galloprovincialis. It is in fact a species that is particularly sensitive to temperature variations and which develops only in the months between late spring and summer. Finding a mussel on the market in the autumn-winter months, the consumer would certainly be faced with a defrosted product, not fresh or anything but local.

Biology

Sepia officinalis is a demersal species particularly abundant in coastal waters, on muddy and sandy bottoms and generally covered with seaweeds and/or phanerogams, but we can actually find it also offshore, up to 200 m depth (Relini et al, 1999; Jereb and Roper, 2005). It has an elongated triangular body, surrounded by two waving fins that favor the movement of the animal. It has eight small tentacles that hide in the center a horny beak similar to that of a parrot and two longer tentacles with suckers only at the apex, which are everted with a very fast shot to capture the prey.

The color is gray-yellowish, usually zebra-striped, but like all the more evolved cephalopods it can change color (and even texture of the skin) both for emotional purposes and for predatory and defensive purposes.

When in danger, the cuttlefish gives off a cloud of black ink, which is released from a special bag (located between the gills) and dispersed with the aid of a jet of water emitted by the siphon, placed under the eyes, to confuse the predator and thus run away. The diet consists of crustaceans such as crabs of which it is greedy, small fish and cephalopods, including its similar ones.

Fishing methods

It is a particularly important commercial fish resource in the Mediterranean and especially in the Upper Adriatic, where it is fished all year round with different techniques and tools, such as cogolli, trammel nets, rapid and trawls, depending on the period. At the beginning of spring, adult individuals concentrate in coastal waters to reproduce, where they become the target of cogolli fishing, generally practiced by small artisanal fishermen and which is concentrated in the months between the end of March and the beginning of July (Manfrin Piccinetti & Giovanardi, 1984). Since the life cycle of the cuttlefish is one year long, at most two and generally ends with the reproductive event, at the end of the season there is often a mass death of the adult specimens (Boletzky, 1983).

In autumn, juveniles migrate to deeper offshore waters, where they are captured by trawls and rapids, both as a target species and as a by-catch, until the end of winter (Bettoso et al., 2016).

In recent years, the fishery for S. officinalis has experienced a marked decline. Beyond the trends, the catch of cuttlefish has often shown periodic fluctuations, which can be linked to various factors, including, for example, environmental ones, whose influence, positive or negative on the abundance of a species can act on the different stages of development, from eggs to adults (Byrne, 2011).

Which one to choose

Along the Italian coast of the Upper Adriatic, in particular in small fleets such as that of Marina di Ravenna, Cervia, Bellaria, where small coastal artisanal fishing prevails, S. officinalis fishing with cogolli represents one of the bases of the economy of the local fishing. This type of fishing, in itself, would generally involve a low impact, removing from the stock adult individuals who are in any case destined to die. However, it is precisely the exploitation of the reproductive moment of cuttlefish that significantly affects the embryonic development inside the eggs, which represents one of the most vulnerable stages of the life cycle. The females of S. officinalis, in fact, exploit the pots for the deposition of the eggs, needing a suitable substrate to attach them (Lazzarini et al., 2006). Given, however, that the tools need periodic cleaning, to ensure their efficiency, the eggs laid on them are generally destroyed. In fact, even if the use of pressure washers or other means that damage the eggs has been prohibited, up to now no alternative methods have been proposed for their removal. Even a hypothetical manual removal of the same, provided that it was feasible during normal fishing operations, would not guarantee a high rate of hatching of the eggs which, if thrown back into the sea, would be easily transported to land by the waves, or would remain buried in the sand of the backdrop.

To overcome this problem, various experiments have been carried out over the years in the Upper Adriatic, with the common aim of offering an alternative substrate for spawning and consequently diluting the load of eggs present on the cogolli.

In 2020 CESTHA conducted an experiment with FEAMP funds, the S.E.P.P.I.A. project, which led to the creation and registration of an eco-sustainable quality trademark "CUTTLEFISH RESPONSABLE FISHERY", which provides for the application by small artisanal fishermen of some virtuous behaviors. Specifically, the laying of egg collectors (systems of tops that recreate submerged seagrass meadows) interspersed with one's tools and the transfer to the CESTHA center of the eggs laid in any case on the cogolli. The difference with the previous experiments lies precisely in the use of natural materials for the construction of the collectors and in their small size, as well as easy use by the fishermen themselves, who can thus independently use these systems and measures to guarantee their catch the use of the trademark. These tricks make S. officinalis marked with the aforementioned label, a perfectly sustainable product that the consumer should prefer to the one caught with other methods. The replication of this experimentation in the Venetian lagoons, again by CESTHA, in 2021, with the FEAMP SEPOline project, has strengthened and spread the use of the "CUTTLEFISH RESPONSABLE FISHERY" brand along the Italian coasts of the Upper Adriatic. In the latter case, given the peculiarity of the seabed and the lagoon area, the experimentation was conducted using very small collectors compared to those used in the S.E.P.P.I.A. interspersed with large bundles of laurel branches: all natural materials on which cuttlefish can lay their eggs

Warnings

Attention to the season: the cuttlefish bought in the autumn/winter months would certainly be an unsustainable cuttlefish, as it would have been fished with more impacting destructive systems, such as trawling, with the capture of specimens that have not yet completed their reproductive cycle.

Biology

Squilla mantis is a crustacean of the Squillidae family, which can reach a maximum length of 20 cm. It is widely distributed in the Mediterranean but mainly in the Adriatic and also in the Eastern Atlantic up to Angola. It has a grayish-white armor with pinkish reflections and with two characteristic oval brown-purple spots on the tail similar to eyes, aimed at deceiving the predator and attracting it where the exoskeleton is more resistant. The shape is elongated. It lives at a depth ranging from 10 m to 200 m on sandy, muddy coastal bottoms, often near the mouth of rivers or the mouth of canals. It is a solitary animal, that lives during the day in tunnels dug into the bottom and at night it goes out in search of food or for reproduction. The female lays numerous eggs during the spring.

Fishing methods

In the upper Adriatic, the mantis shrimp is fished all year round but is more abundant in autumn / winter and after storm surges, which cause the destruction of the burrows. It comes to the market mainly from trawling and gillnets.

In some small fishing sites, such as that of Marina di Ravenna, small-scale fishing uses an alternative method of fishing for mantis shrimp: cages. These are small rigid traps, with inside a bait made up of pieces of fish, which are lowered in series on the seabed and retrieved after a few hours. A funnel-shaped entrance allows the mantis shrimp to enter, but not to exit. The peculiarity of this system, which in fact represents its strong sustainability character, is that, given the rigidity of the tool, the catch is not damaged or crushed in any way and when the fisherman pulls up the cage, he can easily release the undersized individuals and by-catch species, without them having suffered any damage. Within the Interreg ITA-CRO PRIZEFISH project, the CESTHA center has successfully launched a further experimentation, which involved a modification of the entry point of the cages, widening it, thus allowing the undersize and the by-catch to come out autonomously and to remain inside only the adult mantis shrimp.

Which one to choose

In the case of S. mantis, a conscious consumption would be the one that prefers the fished with the cages of the small artisanal fishing, given its strong character of sustainability.

Furthermore, it is good to pay attention to the minimum size, which stands at 15cm.

Warnings

The mantis shrimp, once caught, deteriorates very quickly, so the crustacean should be bought very fresh, and kept in the refrigerator well sealed in a bag for no more than a day.

Highlights

Like other crustaceans, such as shrimp, crabs or lobster, mantis shrimps have a higher amount of cholesterol than other types of marine fish. However, crustaceans are suitable for many diets, because, from the caloric point of view, they have a rather low intake. They also have a fair amount of protein and a good amount of polyunsaturated acids, as well as having many vitamins of type B. Generally having a high quantity of iodine, they are absolutely not to be included in diets that require a low iodine intake.

Biology

Callinectes sapidus (Rathbun, 1896), commonly known as blue crab or blue king crab, is an alien species for the Mediterranean Sea. Originally from the Atlantic coasts of America, today it is massively present between the coasts of the Mediterranean, particularly in the Adriatic, not far from the lagoons and estuaries. The first reports in the Mediterranean date back to 1949 but it is about ten years ago that the blue crab began to develop and spread on our coasts and is now included among the 100 invasive alien marine species of the Mediterranean.

It is a species that lives in coastal waters, lagoons and estuaries, on sandy or muddy bottoms, up to 35 m deep and has a very strong tolerance to very wide variations in salinity and temperature.

The carapace of the blue crab is about twice its length wide, with two triangular front teeth and nine lateral spines, the latter very long and pointed. Its dimensions are considerable, up to a width of 23 cm in males and 20 cm in females. The general colour is grey, brown or blue-green, with blue claws in males and red in females. The blue colour is due to a carotene-protein, which is denatured during cooking, giving the crab a red colour. C. sapidus is a predator that feeds on gastropods, bivalves, crustaceans and small fish.

Sexual maturity is reached between 12 and 18 months and reproduces by laying eggs in the sea between the months of April and September. The number of eggs is between 700,000 and 2,100,000 depending on the size of the females and hatching takes place in waters with salinity greater than 20 ‰.

The predators of the blue crab are sea turtles and probably also birds, cephalopods and fish.

The blue crab is caught and consumed in large quantities, mainly in the United States and Mexico, where its commercial value is very high, thanks to the culinary value of its meat.

Fishing methods

This crab is industrially fished overseas, with fishing boats dedicated to the capture of this crustacean. Along the Italian coasts, until a few years ago, C. sapidus was not fished professionally, except with some accidental catches in trawls, gill nets and cogolli for cuttlefish fishing. The majority of the catches took place mostly by the hand of small amateur fishermen, with the use of pots of various shapes (with pieces of sardine or other fish as bait) or simple nets and torches, used as lampara to see them at night in shallow waters and capture them directly.

In recent times, however, given its increased abundance, this crustacean is beginning to arise a certain commercial interest and in some areas of Italy it is becoming a fishing target, thanks to the use of rigid pots, consisting of wire mesh placed around to a wooden or metal skeleton, to form a cubic cage with two entrances. However, it is still a small artisanal fishing limited to some small local realities.

Which one to choose

From an ecological point of view, the arrival and acclimation of the blue crab in our waters could represent a damage and a threat, the extent of which will only be measurable in the near future. However, since it is a crab with the typical traits of invasive species, which already reproduces on site, it cannot be eradicated. It is therefore advisable to adopt every means to contain its excessive spread and one of these is precisely fishing for consumption, transforming a threat into an opportunity.

Until now, the limited availability of this resource has not justified the development and growth of a dedicated fishery, as in the geographic realities of which it is endemic, but it remains an secondary species of other types of fisheries (by-catch). However, it is not excluded that a further increase in the populations of C. sapidus could lead to the expansion of a new type of fishing, aimed at the capture of the blue crab, which could help mitigate the increasingly evident fishing crisis, with evident economic return, also considering the medium-high value found at the time of marketing.

Biology

Carcinus aestuarii (Nardo, 1847), also known as green crab, common crab or moleca crab is the typical crab that lives near the coasts, native to the Mediterranean Sea and easily found throughout Italy. The carapace of the Mediterranean green crab is rather rounded, of a predominantly greyish-green colour, with a jagged edge; it is broader than long and almost trapezoidal, measuring a maximum of 6.5 cm in length and 8 cm in width, with males being larger than females.

The Mediterranean green crab lives mainly in coastal lagoons, loves muddy sands and can survive large changes in salinity. It rarely moves away from the coast, except in the winter period and is rarely found below 20m.

Characteristic of this species is the migration of females from the lagoons towards the sea for hatching the eggs, which usually occurs from May to November. The female specimens with eggs are captured and marketed under the Venetian dialect name of mazenete, a typical ingredient of renowned local recipes.

Fishing methods

This crustacean arrives on the market stalls from trawl nets or from small artisanal fishing, which catches them through pots or with gillnets.

In the lagoons of Caorle and Venice, a tradition that is unique in the world has also survived, molechiculture, which represents a sort of mixture between farming and the exploitation of wild resources. Moleca or moeca is the stage of the crab during moulting when, once the chitin of the exoskeleton has been reabsorbed, it becomes soft, thus becoming edible and acquiring a high commercial value. Moecanti have learned to recognize the signals that precede the moulting and growth phase of this crustacean. Thus, they lower a “trezza” on the shallows, a net at the ends of which cylindrical traps made up of metal nets are attached, that trap and block the crabs. This activity is concentrated in 2 periods: late January-May (when both males and females mutate) and late September-November (when only the males mutate, as the females carry the eggs). Once the nets have been withdrawn and the crabs collected, a careful selection, that only expert moecanti are able to carry out, is made: once the crabs have been caught, in fact, the fishermen divide them into "boni" (which within three weeks will change into moeche), “spiàntani” (which will change within a few days), “matti” (which will not change) and “mazanette” (females with eggs, also of commercial interest) (Fortibuoni et al., 2009; Pellizzato, 2011). Moecante profession remains the exclusive prerogative of part of the seragiante fishermen (traditional fishing with fixed nets typical of the northern Adriatic lagoons) and handed down only to the new generation of the sector.

Which one to choose

As with all fish products, it would be better to choose those deriving from the most selective and sustainable types of fishing possible, thus avoiding, for example, the product of trawling. In the case of green crab, which not being a particularly well-known product on the market, does not have much market and the stocks are in good condition, for example, consumer can buy that coming from pots and gillnets of small artisanal fishing, or appreciate the moeche, deriving from a centuries-old local tradition.

Biology

Mugil cephalus (common mullet or mullet) and Liza aurata (lotregano or golden mullet) are two species of mullet belonging to the Mugilidae family, with a large distribution range, including the whole circumtropical belt and certainly very widespread in the Mediterranean and the two most common and most fished mullet species in the upper Adriatic.

M. cephalus is a euryhaline species, able to withstand wide variations in salinity, so much that it is regularly found in marine, fresh or brackish waters. It is able to live even in polluted environments and is frequently found inside harbours. It lives in shoals, a typical habit of the younger specimens and appreciates both hard and mobile bottoms.

It has an almost cylindrical body with large scales; the colour is gray-blue above, whitish on the belly with black streaks. It is easily recognized from other Mugilidae due to its large and massive head. Its maximum dimensions are 100 cm in length for about 4.5 kg of weight.

It feeds on all types of benthic invertebrates and also on decaying organic material.

Sexual maturity is reached in inland waters at the second year of age by the males (30 cm) and at the third by the females (35 cm), followed by the return to the sea. The reproductive period, in the Adriatic, runs from July to September. Mating occurs in groups usually composed of 1 female and 3-5 males; the fertilized eggs, directly in the water column, are then transported by the currents as they are provided with an oily drop that facilitates their floating.

L. aurata is very similar to M. cephalus, both in biology and in morphology, but has a smaller and narrower head, a thin upper lip and a large and very evident golden spot on the operculum. It feeds on the bottom by sucking up sediments and encrusting algae from the bottom and from the rocks, as well as detritus and small benthic invertebrates. It is a catadromous species like M. cephalus, that is, it descends towards the sea to reproduce, between September and December.

Fishing methods

Both species of mullet are subject to sport fishing, with hooks or spearguns in apnea. In the Venetian lagoons they are still fished today with the trata, a large net even 40 meters long, which plunges into the canals of the valleys and is then pulled towards the ground to collect the fish.

As for the sea, on the other hand, the mullets found on the market are fished mainly by gillnets and more rarely by flying fishing.

Which one to choose

Being a very common species and with the stocks in good condition, the consumption can be carried out without major limitations. Indeed, it should be enhanced, as it is a so-called "poor fish", with a low cost but good quality meat. Anyway, it is always a good idea to prefer the local product.

Warnings

It is good practice to pay particular attention to the minimum marketable size, which is around 30/35 cm for males and females.

Highlights

The mullet is a good fish that adapts to various preparations. Its meats are tasty, firm and digestible and contain a good amount of Omega 3, but also of mineral salts such as phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and vitamin B6; it is low in fat and high in protein. The best and tastiest specimens are the smallest ones (around 30/35 cm), since with increasing size the meat becomes fatter and tends to take on a "lagoon" flavor in fish caught in brackish waters, which it can be unpleasant. Given its abundance in Italian coastal waters, mullet is sold at low prices, but this is by no means a symptom of poor quality. It is one of the most frequently caught and reared fish in coastal lagoons and fishing valleys. Mullet bottarga is prepared with its eggs. Between the two species, L. aurata has more valuable meat, as it tends to stay in less polluted waters than M. cephalus.

Biology

Rapana venosa is a mollusc of the Muricidae family. It is commonly known as asian rapa whelk and it is a species native to the Sea of ​​Japan, where it is widely exploited and appreciated as a food resource for the quality of its meat.

The first discovery in the Mediterranean Sea is in the upper Adriatic (Ravenna) in 1973 (Ghisotti, 1974). The spontaneous penetration of R. venosa into the Mediterranean is considered unlikely, while the link with maritime traffic through the Suez Canal, at least up to Ravenna, is conceivable.

It has a robust and large shell formed by 5 turns, the last of which comprises about ¾ of the total height, with a wide opening, an intense orange peristome and a large dark-colored horny operculum. Numerous spiral striae over the entire surface of the shell, generally of a more or less light gray or brown color. Average dimensions: height 115 mm, width 90 mm (can reach 180 mm in the original places).

In the Adriatic it is found at depths between 10 and 20 m. It has a high reproductive rate, rapid growth and great adaptability (in particular to variations in temperature and salinity), typical characteristics of a species with a wide ecological value. It is a voracious predator of bivalves, of which it does not pierce the valves, but widens them enough to be inserted inside the proboscis to feed on it. The main concern has always been for the mussel and oyster farms, which in reality are not in danger as they are suspended from the seabed by the retinas.

Fishing methods

Currently in Turkey, Bulgaria and more recently in Romania, rapana has become a resource that is collected, processed and exported mainly to South Korea and Japan. The production of rapana in Europe amounted to 13,000 tons in 2017. The fishery is managed with quota systems, in order to limit the expansion of the species and maintain the commercial activities connected to it. Rapana is now dangerously widespread even in Italy, but here it is not exploited commercially, even if it begins to appear in some Romagna markets. Currently this mollusc is not a target for fishing and it is only taken as a by-catch from bottom trawls and, more rarely, from pots.

Which one to choose

Given the exotic origin of asian rapa whelk and its typical invasive traits, the consumption of this mollusc can represent an effective method of containing the species. Furthermore, by preferring the consumption of local products, it is possible to enhance the local maritime realities.

Highlights

In addition to having very fine and tasty meats, the lack of gastronomic knowledge of this mollusc by the consumer, make it a product with a very low cost.

Biology

Pomatomus saltatrix (Linnaeus, 1766), commonly known as bluefish, is a bony fish of the Pomatomidae family. It has a slender body, two dorsal fins, the first short and small, the second higher and the caudal fin is forked. The livery color is silvery grey on the back while it is lighter on the sides and belly and there is a black spot at the base of the pectoral fin. An adult individual can reach more than one meter in length for over 10 kg of weight. It is to all intents and purposes a predator, it feeds exclusively on fish and cephalopods and its preferential preys are mullets. It reproduces between May and September with pelagic eggs (Villegas-Hernàndez et al., 2015) and commonly lives in the water column between the surface and 200 m of depth. It is a cosmopolitan species of tropical and subtropical waters and is distributed throughout the Mediterranean. In recent years its abundance has also increased in the Adriatic Sea probably due to the warming of the waters (Sebatés et al., 2012).

Fishing methods

P. saltatrix is a species loved by sport fishermen due to the resistance it opposes to capture and it is fished with trowling or spinning techniques. Another common method of fishing is with the ropeway technique with live baits, triggering small bait fish, such as garfish, mormore or mullet, with a terminal with the last centimeters of steel cable and ending with a hook of variable size according to the size of the individuals you want to fish.

As for commercial fishing, it is rare to find them in fishing boat nets. In the Adriatic Sea, trawling does not catch more than two or three individuals per boat while for gill nets or middle water trawling it is a little more common, even making a few boxes per catch. However, these are very small numbers and it is not usually a target fishing species.

Which one to choose

The individuals present on the market arrive either by trawl or by gillnets. Although in general these two types of fishing do not have a high potential for sustainability, the consumer can safely consider bluefish a sustainable product, as its fishing, both professional and non, does not significantly impact the stocks.

Warnings

This species is found on the market all year round, but for even more sustainable consumption, it should be purchased between October and February, outside its reproductive period.

Highlights

In Italy it is relatively little used in cooking, unlike in Turkey and Greece, where it is highly appreciated. Its meats, in fact, are particularly good if fresh. It is also commonly consumed raw, such as tartare, after chilling. It is high in protein and also contains retinol, vitamins A and B12, and Omega 3.

Biology

Lichia amia (Linnaeus, 1766), or leerfish or garrick, is a carangiform bony fish that lives in tropical and subtropical waters. Very often he ventures into brackish waters to hunt mullets, pushing himself into the mouths of rivers and harbour waters. The leerfish has a laterally compressed body, with a smaller head than the rest of the figure. The pectoral fins are quite small, while the dorsal and anal fins are opposite and equal to each other. The livery is silver-gray on the back and white on the sides, while the fins are darker. It can reach large dimensions, up to 2 meters. Reproduction occurs in the spring-summer period in coastal waters and the eggs are pelagic. The leerfish is typical of the whole Mediterranean Sea and in recent years it is also found in the Adriatic waters.

Fishing methods

The leerfish is a species loved by sport fishermen, it is fished with the trolling technique with live baits and with spinning. It is not an easy catch because it is hardly confused by artificial baits. It is also captured by amateur freediving fishermen with spearguns.

Leccia is not a target species of professional fishing. Its sporadic capture is generally a by-catch of gillnets or middle water trawling.

Which one to choose

In the fish market one can find individuals coming from gillnets or from middle water trawling. Although in general terms these two types of fishing do not have a high potential for sustainability, the consumer can safely consider the leerfish to be a sustainable product, as its fishing, both professional and not, does not significantly impact the stocks.

Highlights

Its meat is very tasty and with a basically low cost. Its delicate flavor is very similar to that of the finest amberjack.

As already mentioned above, a special mention should be made to the so-called "poor fish".

Poor fish has earned this nickname not because it is not rich in properties (on the contrary). The origin of this term is due to the fact that fishermen went around reselling fish leftovers in the neighborhoods of seaside towns, to get rid of those fish that they had not been able to sell during the market. Whole crates of fish that nobody wanted, for a simple reason of convenience. There are, in fact, lean, structured fish, with stable meats, which are considered the main fish. Once purchased, they keep well in the fridge for up to two or three days without spoiling. They are not necessarily better, but they are certainly easier to manage. Poor fish, on the other hand, is more delicate to manage and certainly keeps much less than the main fish, but from a nutritional point of view it is very valuable. It is extremely rich in omega 3, the so-called "good fats", which are the first to oxidize and therefore deteriorate, and in Vitamin D, a vitamin that concentrates and is made more bioavailable by fish oil.

Another advantage of poor fish is that of being sustainable and with a low environmental impact, precisely because choosing fish that is less known but equally tasty compared to the classic tuna, salmon or swordfish, its consuming relieves the fishing pressure on these most sought-after species and guarantees the maintenance of biodiversity of all the fish species of our seas, allowing the species over-exploited by fishing to reproduce more easily. Furthermore, by using a local seasonal fish, which in addition to enhancing the small local maritime realities eliminates import costs and being considered of lesser commercial value, poor fish are less expensive.

Among the various species, some below, very common in the upper Adriatic.

🟢 JACK MACKERELS or SAURELS (TRACHURUS TRACHURUS)

The jack mackerel or saurel is a bony fish of the Carangidae family. It is a voracious predator and it is very common in coastal waters, where it aggregates in large colonies. Young specimens are often found under the hat of large jellyfish, such as Rhizostoma pulmo or Cotylorhiza tubercolata, where they find protection.

In southern Italy the saurel is frequently fished with small longlines or with the purse seine. In the upper Adriatic, on the other hand, it arrives on the market mainly from middle water trawlings or gillnets for what concerns small-scale fishing.

In both cases, his catches can be considered a sustainable fishing, but as always, it is good to prefer the local product.

🟢 EUROPEAN SPRAT (SPRATTUS SPRATTUS)

The European sprat, also known as papalina because in ancient times it was fished only from the papal possessions of the upper Adriatic, is a fish unknown to most, but very well known in Romagna. For a long time little sold and difficult to find on the market, since the Sardina was preferred, similar and better known, today it is one of the symbols of the gastronomy of the Romagna coast, where it is often also present in the village festivals.

It is a very frequent fish in many seas of the temperate belt, including the Adriatic, it gathers in large schools and it almost always stays offshore, but can occasionally approach the shore and penetrate the brackish lagoons. In the Mediterranean, it reproduces in winter and its meat is more prized during the spring-summer months.

Like the sardine, the european sprat comes on the market mainly from middle water trawling nets and can be considered a sustainable species, which should indeed be valued, representing a very important local tradition.

🟢 SEABREAM (DIPLODUS SPP.)

Bream are bony fish belonging to the Sparidae family. In the Adriatic there are 4 species of bream: Maggiore (Diplodus sargus), Pizzuto (Diplodus puntazzo), Fasciato (Diplodus vulgaris), Sparaglione (Diplodus annularis). The differences between these species are very evident, and apart from the habitats and nutrition, they concern the liveries and dimensions. For the consumer, the most prized bream is the maggiore, which has almost disappeared today; little appreciated are the pizzuto and the sparaglione, the first for the taste the second for the size (small). A fresh bream has a shiny bright silver body, is very rigid and sometimes curved, purple-red gills, turgid and transparent eyes, scales well combed and firmly attached to the skin.

The bream meat contains 5-6% of fat therefore they are considered semi-fat. It is rich in mineral salts that make it a suitable food in restorative diets for adolescents, sportsmen, convalescents and the elderly.

All four species are caught by sport fishermen, with hooks and lines, and by artisanal fishing with gillnets, but of these breams, the only two that have excellent meat to eat are the fasciato and the maggiore.

When buying, therefore, in addition to favoring the local product as always, it is good to be careful what you buy, since often, for example, the pizzuto is passed off as the two most prized species, but in reality, its meat is poorly flavored.

🟢 SAND STEENBRAS (LITHOGNATHUS MORMYRUS)

The sand steenbras is a saltwater bony fish belonging to the Sparidae family. It has a very wide diffusion: in fact, being able to survive at various depths, it populates both the seas and the oceans and prefers muddy and sandy bottoms, where it finds the small molluscs and annelids it feeds on.

The sand steenbras is well known by sport fishermen, who catch it with the surfcasting technique, triggering the hook with the molluscs it feeds on, but it then arrives mainly on the market from the gillnets of local fishermen.

Sand steenbras meats are not only tasty: they also provide a high protein intake and contain an important percentage of iron, calcium, potassium and phosphorus. Due to its low carbohydrate and fat content, sand steenbras is particularly suitable for low-calorie diets.

🟢 SCHILLA (CRANGON CRANGON)

The schilla is a shrimp of the Crangonidae family, it has a typical gray-brown color, with a thick and thin black dot maculation. It can reach the length of 9 cm even if the average size is around 3-5 cm.

It is a coastal marine species typical of sandy bottoms that penetrates the entire lagoon basin, both on the open bottoms and on the seagrass meadows, reaching as far as the brackish waters of the valleys, where it often takes on darker colors.

Fishing for this crustacean, like all the lagoon fish fauna, has its roots in ancient times dating back to the foundation of the first settlements in the lagoon. Currently fishing is carried out in various ways, all deriving from ancient traditions. In the coastal area it is carried out with a special trawl called a schiler. In the lagoon these crustaceans are instead caught with gillnets called traturi. Finally, in the lagoon, sport fishing of this species is also practiced with a particular hand net, with a triangular shape, equipped with a large tight-knit bag, which is pushed by walking on the shallow water, called paravanti. The product is marketed still alive and vital in special boxes of polystyrene or plastic material, refrigerated with ice flakes and it is available directly from fishermen or from retailers in all fish markets in the province of Venice, and in larger quantities from October to March.

Its fishing represents an ancient local tradition, which in addition to having to be maintained to keep the history of the Venetian lagoon and its fishermen alive, does not affect the stock of the species by itself. Its consumption can therefore be considered sustainable and should indeed be valued as a local product.

🟢🟡 RED MULLET and SURMULLET (MULLUS BARBATUS and MULLUS SURMULATUS)

The mullet is a marine bony fish belonging to the Mullidae family characterized by a characteristic reddish color. In the upper Adriatic there are two species.

The Mullus surmulatus, or surmullet, populates rocky and even sandy or plant-covered bottoms, but still in the proximity of hard substrates, always at low depths, the juveniles live in the open sea. The adults are gregarious and move in small branches, continuously looking for food on the bottom by means of the barbels.

The Mullus barbatus, or red mullet, on the other hand, frequents sandy and muddy bottoms between a few centimeters and a few meters depths.

The species are highly regarded for their lean, nutritious and highly digestible meats, with high amounts of zinc, selenium, iron and phosphorus, as well as a good source of vitamins A and B.

The mullet is always very present on the market and comes mainly from gillnets (especially the surmullets) and from the trawl.

the mullet cannot be strictly considered a poor fish, but its consumption is now well rooted in the culture and traditions of the upper Adriatic. Surely it is always good to favor local consumption and possibly favor the mullet coming from the gillnets of small artisanal fishing, as, in addition to enhancing the small seafaring realities, they have greater selectivity characteristics compared to trawling.

Biology

Tritia mutabilis (Linnaeus, 1758), or “bombolino snail”, is a gastropod mollusc, subclass Prosobranchi. It has an elongated, smooth and small shell, which can reach a height of 38 mm and a diameter of 23 mm, however in the Adriatic, where most of the national production comes from, the most frequent sizes are between 17 and 25 mm. The colour is brownish-yellow, with brown designs resembling flames. It is a common species throughout the Mediterranean, which prefers sandy-muddy bottoms up to 20 meters deep.

The sea snail has separate sexes and reproduces in the period between the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Fertilization is internal and the spheroidal eggs are enclosed within sessile ovigerous capsules, which attach themselves to solid substrates such as submerged branches, shells, stones, gillnet tools, joined to each other to form agglomerates of a spongy consistency.

Fishing methods

Bombolino is a product of small-scale fishing of extreme commercial importance in the central-northern Adriatic, especially in Emilia - Romagna, Marche, Abruzzo and Molise. Initially the fishing of this species was practiced through the use of trawl nets, in particular the "sfogliara" and common cuttlefish pots, but, starting from 1960, a specific keepnet was introduced for the sea snail fishing, called nassino or basket for snails. Nassini are truncated cone-shaped traps, which rest stably on the bottom with the larger base (diameter of about 42 cm), while the entrance opening for the preys, attracted by a bait consisting of dead sardines, is represented by the base smaller upper (about 21 cm); once they were made of wicker, while now they consist of a scaffolding in iron or steel rod, on which a net with a very small opening mesh (generally 18 mm) is mounted tightly. The net, in polyamide or polyester, is mounted on the oblique side walls with the smooth surface towards the inside of the nassino, to make it difficult for the specimens to escape and with the rough surface towards the outside to facilitate their entry. This type of small fishing is a seasonal fishing, which takes place from the beginning of autumn to the end of spring, with a certain discontinuity in the period from the end of winter to the beginning of spring, coinciding with the breeding season. In this period, the snails enter the nassini also to reproduce, as evidenced by the presence of a high number of ovigerous capsules on the side walls of the tools and, according to the fishermen, it is precisely in this period that the product reaches the higher quality level.

The fishing of this species is regulated by the D.M. 30/11/1996, which prevents the capture of individuals under 20 mm in size, to preserve the juveniles and prohibits fishing with rapids or sfogliare (Fabi and Grati, 2004). Already starting from 1984 there has been a decrease in the number of specimens of T. mutabilis and a reduction in its distribution range, concomitantly with a greater diffusion of other species that occupy the same ecological niche, but which are much less valuable from a commercial point of view (in particular, the antagonist species Tritia reticulata, also known as "false snail"). Currently the number of fishermen who engage in this type of small-scale fishing has increased considerably and, even if it is not possible to know exactly the number, as there is no specific license, surveys carried out in cooperative organizations estimate many hundreds of them. In this regard, it cannot be ruled out that the significant decline in the resource, observed in recent years, may be due to excessive withdrawal and incorrect management that have changed the balance between species in the biological community (Balducci G.M. et al., 2005). In fact, although T. mutabilis is the only target species, the catches include increasing quantities of T. reticulata and in recent years, the increase in fishing effort and the systematic re-release of T. reticulata into the sea seem to have caused a depletion of the T. mutabilis stock and an increase in the antagonist species (Fabi and Grati, 2004). From 1984 to 1997, the abundance indices between T. mutabilis and T. reticulata were even inverted (Bongiovanni, 2011).

Which one to choose

Local and seasonal product to enhance fishing

Highlights

Sea snails can be marketed only if they are alive and viable and must come from sea areas classified according to the provisions of Regulation 854/2004 / EC, as for Bivalve Molluscs. To check the status of the product at the time of purchase, it is possible to resort to direct stimulation of the mollusc: if the snail is alive, the animal's muscular foot will react to the mechanical stimulus, retracting. Sea snail meat is low in fat and carbohydrates, but high in protein, sodium, calcium, potassium, phosphorus and vitamin E.

Biology

The shell is equi-valve and covered with evident concentric ribs. The colour is whitish, brown or grey, with white, brown or violet spots and streaks.

The breeding season of Chamelea gallina is approximately between April and October with 1-2 peaks (Froglia, 1975a-b; Casali, 1984; Valli et al., 1985; Keller et al, 2002). The onset of sexual maturity occurs when individuals reach 13-15mm (Marano et al., 1982; Cordisco et al., 2005) and full maturity occurs around 22-25mm, which correspond to about two years of age and which represent the minimum marketable size (Froglia, 1975a).

Fishing methods

The quantitatively most important species among the bivalves that live in the sandy bottoms of the western side of the Adriatic is undoubtedly the C. gallina (L.), known with the dialectal names of Lupino clam, Peverassa, Biberasso, Caparozzolo etc., whose fishing is mainly practiced in the Upper Adriatic.

The great abundance of this mollusk meant that clam fishing underwent a dramatic increase in the 1970s, as a result of the introduction of "hydraulic dredges" or "turbo-blowers", operating on the principle of the surf-clam dredges of the Americans (Parker, 1971). The tool consists of a metal cage with a horizontal opening (mouth) that is dragged to the bottom and which, thanks to a blade in the front, penetrates the sediment, capturing the target species. During fishing, the tool sinks into the substrate for several centimeters and the presence of pressurized water jets facilitate its towing, favoring the sieving of the sediment and conveying the molluscs inside a net. As often happens in these cases, the high economic yields guaranteed by the new equipment have led to the uncontrolled proliferation of vessels dedicated to this activity and at the same time to a continuous increase in the efficiency of the equipment used. All this took place outside of any scientific experimentation, which could provide information on the potential of the shoals to be exploited, any periods of interdiction of fishing and the characteristics of the gear capable of guaranteeing selective capture by size (Froglia, 1975).

For example, in fact, the removal of large quantities of sediment, during collection, damages the delicate juvenile stages causing high mortality, since it is able to bury them at excessive depth or bring them to the surface, thus making them more vulnerable to predation (Pérez-Iglesias & Navarro, 1995 quoted by Bald et al., 2003). Finally, the coincidence of the reproductive period with spring-summer season, that is that of the maximum fishing intensity, naturally further aggravates the situation (Cannas et al., 2010).

The combination of these factors, combined with the multiple variations of environmental parameters, has meant that once the yields of this fishery were particularly high, but from the 70s to today a negative trend has been established, which has gradually caused the reduction of the catch of more than 6 times the initial one (Romanelli et al., 2009).

For this reason, this fishing activity is currently highly regulated, by regulations that prescribe the minimum marketing size of the product (25 mm), which prevent the carrying out of the activity in depths of less than 3m, which set at least two months a year of stopped fishing (between April and October) and that fix the maximum allowed value of catch per boat (600 kg) (Romanelli et al, 2009).

Currently, also with regard to the coastal areas of Romagna, there is a sharp decline in the stocks of C. gallina, so much so that for years there has been the abandonment of activities by numerous operators.

As for the Venetian lagoon, before the spread of the engine, in the 40s of the last century and the introduction and spread of the Philippine clam (Venerupis philippinarum) in the 80s, fishing in the lagoon was practiced with artisanal methods and tools, some of which still survive. The different fishing techniques had been developed according to the behavior of the species and it was a multi-specific and multi-tool fishing (there were more than 50 “trades and crafts”, which constituted the “fishing arts” of Venice). The current situation is quite different, since clam fishing has practically supplanted the historic artisan forms of lagoon fishing. The Philippine clam has in fact spread rapidly thanks to a high growth rate and the ability to adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions. In a few years it became the first lagoon fish product, prompting many artisanal fishermen to abandon traditional fishing. This fishing, exercised in a free access regime, however, highlighted sustainability problems and in 1999 the Province of Venice established the transition to aquaculture in areas granted under concession.

Which one to choose

Currently C. gallina cannot be considered a particularly sustainable product, due to the various reasons mentioned. However, there are exceptions. The OP Bivalvia cooperative, which gathers clam fishermen in Veneto, has been working for years to apply particularly effective mitigation systems. These include the sowing of C. gallina in nursery areas, control and management of harvesting, rotation of the exploited areas to allow the restocking and temporary closure of specific breeding and nursery areas. On the other hand, it also deals with trying to combine market demand with the possibility of supplying the product, in order to avoid over-exploitation of stocks and food waste. During the Interreg ITA-HR PRIZEFISH project, this case study was identified as a Best Practice.

Warnings

In addition to the origin of the product, in the case of the clam one must pay particular attention to the minimum size, which stands at 25 mm.

Biology

Solea solea (linneaus, 1758) or common sole is a fish belonging to the order of pleuronectiformes (fish without bilateral symmetry). This species is widespread throughout the Mediterranean Sea, lives on sandy or muddy bottoms at depths usually between 10 and 60 m, with peaks up to 150 m. It tolerates fairly low levels of salinity for which it is also found in the brackish waters of lagoons and estuaries; it generally spends the daytime hours buried in the sand, from which it comes out to hunt only at night. From the morphological point of view, it has an oval, flat and asymmetrical body, devoid of coloured pigments on the blind side (the left), while the right side is greyish-beige with minute dark spots, the mouth is arched and lower, dorsal fins and anal devoid of spiny rays and joined to the caudal fin by a well-developed membrane. The spawning takes place in shallow coastal waters, mainly during the months of February-May at temperatures of 6 - 12°C and begins after 3-5 years of age, when they reach the size of 25-30 cm.

Fishing methods

The sole caught in the national seas comes mainly from the Adriatic area and in all the waters surrounding Sicily; fishing can be done without restrictions at all times of the year, even if larger quantities are caught in winter.

It is a species of great importance for professional fishing and is mainly caught with trowled gear such as beam trawl or crampons. It is also caught with trawl nets and fixed gears (gillnets).

Which one to choose

Which one to choose

Sole fishing can be carried out without restrictions during all times of the calendar year, even if in winter larger quantities are fished, as it is more abundant, being in its reproductive period. For sustainable consumption, it would therefore be advisable to avoid buying it in the cold months and to respect the minimum fishing size, which is 20 cm (EC Regulation n. 1967/2006).

Highlights

The sole meat continues high quantities of vitamins A and B, offers a good dose of useful proteins and Omega 3.

Biology

Both the turbot (Scophthalmus rhombus) and the spiked turbot (Psetta maxima or Scophtalmus maximus) are fish belonging to the order of the pleuronectiformes, they are therefore devoid of bilateral symmetry, they have both eyes on one side, in this case the left, and the side without eyes (blind side) is pink and depigmented. The turbot has a thin and slender body with a less quadrangular shape than the other and can reach a maximum of 70 cm per 7 kg of weight; the skin has small, smooth scales; the first rays of the dorsal fin are free and not connected to the others by the membrane; the lateral line presents a sharp curvature at the level of the pectoral fin. The colour is often olive green, with dark and light spots; however, they are able to change colour to blend in with the bottom on which they rest. The spiked turbot, on the other hand, has a very elongated body with an almost rhombic shape, it can reach 1 m in length and 12 kg in weight; it differs from the previous one for the bony tubercles present on the body, and for the first rays of the dorsal fin which are similar to the others. The livery is usually brown or greyish with very variable dark spots and marbling. Both species are widespread on the Atlantic Ocean coasts between Iceland and Norway and Morocco, in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Baltic Sea and in the Black Sea. The adults live on sandy, rocky or mixed bottoms, at depths ranging from 20 to 70 m for the bolted, and from 5 to 50 m for the smooth turbot. They are also quite common in brackish waters. They feed mainly on other bottom fish (sandeels, gobies, etc.), and also to a lesser extent on larger crustaceans and bivalves. Spawning usually takes place between the months of February and April in the Mediterranean and from May to July in the Atlantic.

Fishing methods

Professional fishing catches it with bottom trawls, as well as occasionally with gillnets, in the marines that practice artisanal fishing, through special gill nets. As for the sports one, however, the turbot voraciously bites the hooks, and is undermined with the surf casting technique, triggering dead fish or molluscs and with the spinning technique, triggering artificial baits.

Which one to choose

For turbot, trawling is certainly considered the most profitable in the Adriatic. Fishing regulations prescribe the obligation to comply with minimum measures for fish caught. Below the set limit, fish must be released while above the same limit they can be taken up to a maximum quantity also established by law. In the case of the spiked turbot this limit is set at 25 cm, while for the smooth turbot at 20 cm.

Highlights

Turbot meat is particularly light and nutritious, rich in mineral salts such as phosphorus, iodine, potassium, calcium and magnesium and at the same time low in fat.

Biology

Tuna or bluefin tuna is a large pelagic fish belonging to the Scombridae family.

It is widespread in the tropical, subtropical and temperate waters (temperatures above 10 ° C) of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea (where it is the only species of tuna present) and the southern Black Sea. It mainly frequents offshore waters and approaches the coasts only at certain times of the year (different from place to place) and in certain points, usually near islands or promontories.

It has a massive body, fusiform, of a dark steel blue color on the back, sometimes almost black. The belly and flanks are silvery-white, sometimes with indistinct paler spots in the lower part.

It is one of the largest fish in the Mediterranean: it exceeds 3 m in length and records a record of a specimen weighting 725 kg.

It feeds mainly on fish, especially sardines and round sardinellas.

The spawning takes place in the summer in waters slightly closer to the coasts than those frequented in the other periods. The growth is very rapid: at one year the tuna measures about 70 cm. The animal reaches sexual maturity at 2-4 years, when it is about 1 m long.

Migrations

The tuna pass from an erratic phase, during which they move in small, not very dense groups, composed by fish of the same size, to then gather, in more dense groups, during the gregarious phase, to migrate in numerous schools towards reproduction areas, at the beginning of the breeding season.

Fishing methods

Given the high commercial importance and strong market demand, tuna has always been subject to massive overfishing, so much to bring its populations to a drastic decline. In the early 2000s, a quotation system was thus introduced to regulate the collection, as well as a continuous implementation of the fight against illegal fishing and the black market.

The types of fishing gear used for tuna are:

Purse seines: to this type of fishing (weights and floats create a kind of sack where the fish are trapped) about ¾ of the quotas are generally destined. Bluefin tuna, mainly caught by Italian fishermen (especially from Campania) and French fishermen with purse seine, is not destined for the local market, but is transferred to Malta, where it is fattened in floating cage farms. The "fattening" occurs mainly by feeding the tuna with mackerel and herring, to increase the fat / meat ratio. Here it is then slaughtered and shipped, mainly to Japan and to a lesser extent to other countries, for the sushi and sashimi market.

Longline: this type of fishing gear consists of a series of lines (armrests) of which one end ends with a hook and the other is connected at regular intervals to a cable (beam) that can be several kilometers long. As for bluefin tuna fishing, this activity is typical of the Sicilian region and is purely seasonal (May-June), as it is linked to the passage of tuna in the Sicilian Channel. This involves carrying out very long fishing trips of varying duration.

Tonnara: Bluefin tuna live most of their life in the North Atlantic and in spring they migrate to the Mediterranean where they reproduce (incoming tuna); in autumn they then return to the ocean (returning tuna). These migrations tend to pass from the same places and in the same periods, thus allowing the installation of fixed fishing facilities, which are called traps. During this trip the tuna do not eat and therefore the meat of the incoming tuna is fatter and tastier than that of the returning tuna; for this reason, fishing takes place mainly in late spring, when it is possible to catch specimens, whose meat has a greater commercial value.

In Italy, at the moment there are only three tonnare that have a fishing license, all in Sardinia: Isola Piana in Carloforte, Capo Altano and Porto Paglia in Portoscuso. Then there are those of Favignana in Sicily, Cala Vinagra in Carloforte in Sardinia, Camogli in Liguria, once active, but now without either a fishing license or quotas.

Bycatch: accidental catches usually occur mainly in mid-water trawling, as tuna is a greedy predator of the latter's target species. However, these are sporadic and irregular catches in the Upper Adriatic and occur mainly in spring. In this case, the weight of the tuna caught must be less than 5% of the weight of the catch of the target species of the day.

Sport fishing: a small amount is also reserved for sport fishing, which is mainly practiced with drifting, a technique that captures most of the specimens and heavier weights, but also with spinning or deep-sea trolling.

As regards the latter two cases, by-catch and sport fishing, the fisherman must report the catch to the competent authorities.

Which one to choose

The first clarification to be made is that actually on the Italian market it is very difficult to find bluefin tuna.

In fact, although Italy is the third largest producer of bluefin tuna in the world, the catch is almost entirely exported abroad, especially to Japan.

You can occasionally find it in some luxury restaurants, usually resulting from by-catch or sport fishermen. In some cases, otherwise, it is possible to find it on the southern Italian market, but one cannot always be sure of its origin: in fact, it could often come from poaching with driftnets, which in addition to its obvious illegal nature, it involves that the processing of the fish is directly on board offshore and therefore compliance with health regulations is not guaranteed.

Therefore, on the Italian market there is mainly Thunnus albacares or yellow fin tuna, less valuable and much cheaper, fished with the same type of techniques used for bluefin tuna and mainly coming from the Atlantic and Pacific.

It should also be noted that the fishing techniques used for tuna, in particular longline, are techniques with a low level of sustainability, as it captures many other non-target species, some of which are protected. In fact, accidental catches of sharks and sea turtles are not unusual, where in addition to the serious injuries caused in the esophagus by the large hooks, serious injuries to the internal organs caused by the lines, if swallowed, or to the fins if the line are twists around creating necrosis and amputations, can easily occur.

All these considerations put together, the poor selectivity of the fishing gear and the high rate of accidental catches of protected species, the overfishing due to the strong market demand, the foreign origin of the tuna which is mainly found on the local market, give this product a very low level of sustainability and it would be better to consume other more sustainable species instead.

Highlights

Given its high cost, through official channels, tuna is an excellent product to be processed, so much so that all its parts are exploited: some of them are more valuable, others less. Among these we find:

Bottarga: food consisting of the ovary of the fish, whose eggs are salted and dried with traditional procedures. In addition to tuna, it is also obtained from mullet, but the former has a much stronger flavor.

Buzzonaglia (or busonaglia): particular tuna preserve that makes use of the less valuable cut of the fish, that is the parts of the fillet in contact with the central bone, very dark because they are abundantly sprinkled with blood and from the smaller parts and less valuable parts. It is usually packaged in oil and is a typical product of Sicily, Sardinia and Liguria.

Ventresca: it is the finest part of tuna and it is usually eaten fresh or packaged for preservation in olive oil. It is obtained from the fattest part of the animal, the one that surrounds the abdominal cavity: the muscle bundles are woven with fat that make the meat softer and tastier. It is very popular on the tables of Trapani cuisine, where it is called surra.

Mosciame (or tarantello): typical product of the coastal areas of Liguria, Sicily, Trapani and Sardinia. It is obtained from the upper part of the belly and the meat is descaled, cleaned and washed before being put in salt. In the subsequent stages of preparation, the meat is dried: once the process took place in the air, but today, for fear of pollution, ovens are used for 4-6 hours at a temperature of about 25-30 ° C. The meat is finally preserved in oil.

Lattume: In the denomination of figatello, it has been officially recognized and included in the list of traditional Italian food products (P.A.T) by the Mipaaf. It is obtained from the processing of the seminal fluid sac of the male specimens of tuna or amberjack. Typical of Sicily, it is the male equivalent of bottarga. The difference is in the color, flesh pink in the milky and orange in the bottarga. A rare and highly gastronomic preparation, it can be used to dress pasta, salads or eaten directly fried. In Trapani cuisine it is also used in salt.

Polmonello and Heart of tuna: both processed in a similar way to bottarga.

Scapece (or maccarone): traditionally the least valuable part of the bluefin tuna (after the buzzonaglia) which, after boiling, is preserved in oil. Typical of Sicily.

It is interesting to note that many of these dialect names, especially typical of Sicily, have an Arabic derivation.

Biology

It is present in tropical, subtropical and temperate areas of all oceans, as well as in the Mediterranean, Black, Marmara and Azov seas. It is a typical pelagic fish that in certain situations can come close to the coasts, mainly in surface waters but can go down to 800 meters; it usually does not drop below the thermocline. It lives in waters between 18 and 22°C (juveniles also in warmer waters) and in cold areas, migrates southwards in autumn.

It has a fusiform body, with a cylindrical section, which narrows at the back. Its most famous and evident feature is the great development of the upper jaw which forms the typical "sword", flattened and sharp and about 1/3 of the body long. The scales and teeth are absent in adults. The body is lead gray to brownish on the back, silvery with metallic reflections on the sides and tending to white on the belly.

The swordfish is one of the largest bony fish, with a maximum length of over 4.5 m and a weight that exceeds well over 400 kg and an average size of about 3 meters.

Recent studies have confirmed that the swordfish sword is used as a weapon during mating.

Very fast swimmer, he also migrates over oceanic distances. It has solitary habits but is sometimes found in pairs. There is a particular physiological mechanism that allows the brain and eyes to be heated up to 20°C above the ambient temperature to increase vision exponentially, which makes it a very versatile and formidable predator especially for fish and squid, which are affected with the sword.

Reproduction occurs in the hot season, with the deposition of up to 800.000 pelagic eggs and growth is very fast, with the female growing faster than the male.

Fishing methods

Swordfish is of great importance for commercial fishing, which is carried out mainly with drift longlines and purse seines, as well as a by-catch in tuna fishing. As already mentioned for what concerns the bluefin tuna, these fishing techniques do not have a high degree of sustainability, as they are not very selective and with a high rate of by-catches of sensitive and / or protected species, such as sharks and sea turtles. On a global level, the catches take place mainly in the northwestern Pacific, in the central eastern Pacific and in the Mediterranean, while in Italy, which is among the nations in the world that catches the largest quantities of swordfish, it is mainly caught in the Strait of Messina and along the coasts of Calabria.

It is also caught by deep sea sport fishermen.

For swordfish also, as well as for tuna, there are local and traditional fishing activities that follow principles of greater selectivity in the catches of adult individuals.

In various coastal areas of Sicily, for example, particularly in ​​the Strait of Messina, swordfish is caught on special boats, called feluche, which have a bridge from which the fish are harpooned and a large mast from which they are sighted. This activity is by no means easy: these fish don't spend much time on the surface, but only what is necessary to feed; so everything must take place with extreme speed.

The fishermen divide up the roles: there is the mezziere who takes care of the route, the 'ntinnieri who sees the fish and the lanzatari who throws the harpoon. At the end, an "X" is placed on the prey: this is carding, a kind of signature for Messina fishermen, to guarantee the quality of the product once in the fish market.

Which one to choose

If on a global level swordfish has a trend that does not yet include it among the species at high risk of extinction, its overexploitation in the Mediterranean is drastically reducing its populations.

This situation is leading member states to think about the "quota" mechanism, along the lines of those introduced for bluefin tuna, to try to stop the decline of the species, even if the opposition of some member countries is slowing down its introduction.

For the reasons of overexploitation, swordfish should be reduced in consumption, at least for a medium-term period, preferring instead different species, on which the harvesting activities have less impact.

Warnings

Swordfish meat, like that of other large fish, contains high levels of heavy metals (biomagnification), including mercury. Consequently, frequent consumption is not recommended and above all children and pregnant women should avoid consumption.

Biology

The term salmon is generally used to refer to fish of the family Salmonidae. However, several species of marine and freshwater bony fish belong to this group, including trout and true salmon. The latter are widespread throughout the northern hemisphere and have several species.

Salmon still occupies the same geographical area between the North Atlantic Ocean (Genus Salmo) and the North Pacific Ocean (Genus Oncorhynchus); introduced by man, they also live in other parts of North America, in Patagonia and New Zealand.

The most commercialised and used salmon, however, is the Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar. Its biological cycle is carried out by spending part of its life in the sea, and then moving up river courses at the time of spawning, at an average age of about 3-4 years, in the place where they were born. After spawning, the majority of males die, while up to 40% of females survive, but only between 0.3 and 6% of them undertake a new reproductive migration.

Salmon arriving from the sea have a beautiful silvery livery, with a bluish back, later turning dark red, including the swimming fins. Females turn almost black. The latter, usually the oldest, are always the first to lead the 'triangle' formations that they assume during the laborious ascent. When they reach the breeding grounds and lay their eggs, they lose their nuptial livery. Exhausted and having consumed all the reserve fat for the development of the gonads, the flesh loses consistency and becomes watery. The skin on their backs thickens and the scales appear to be almost threadbare. At this stage the Anglo-Saxons call the male salmon red fish, while the female, which becomes black, is called black fish. The exhausted fish at the end of the spawning period is called kelt. 

Production methods

Today, farmed salmon constitutes 4.5% of all aquacultures in the world and its production occupies very important market shares within fish production. However, its production cannot be described as totally sustainable, as this industry still has a significant impact on resource conservation. Despite advances in animal welfare, antibiotic use and research into alternative feeds, salmon farms alone consume 60% of the total fish oil on the market and 23% of fish meal. In practice, about 2.5 kg of caught fish are used to produce one kg of salmon, which is of lower commercial value, but still fit for human consumption. Until research into the use of complementary feeds to replace products derived from fishing is efficient, the consumption of farmed salmon cannot be considered environmentally friendly.

Which one to choose

Recently, wild Alaskan salmon can also be found more easily in European markets. This designation groups five species belonging to the genus Oncorhynchus, which are born in Alaskan rivers and then spend their adult lives in the North Pacific Ocean. To date, none of Alaska's salmon stocks are threatened or endangered, because the limitations (type of fish, fishing period and location) are dictated by the regulations of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which manages the salmon fishery by setting 'escape targets', which allow enough adult salmon to escape capture and reach freshwater spawning grounds, thus maintaining the health of salmon populations in the long term.

To maintain these results, fishing quotas fluctuate from year to year as the ADFG makes management decisions during the season for more than 15,000 spawning streams, which are managed by the state and set times, locations and types of catch.

Warnings

While wild salmon is a good practice for sustainable exploitation, one has to think about the sustainability of importing these products, which reach European markets directly and literally from the other side of the world. A decidedly eco-friendly and development-friendly alternative for local communities, particularly mountain communities, could be the use of local trout (fish of the same genus as salmon) from small, non-intensive farms.

Alongside the best practices regarding fishing and, consequently, the best products to buy for conscious and sustainable consumption, it is also appropriate to mention the worst practices, and in particular those products that, regardless of the type of fishing through which they arrived on the market, they should not be consumed.

The main one is shark meat. Sharks and rays are at the top of the food chain and their predation activity is necessary to maintain the entire balance of the food web. Their vulnerability to fishing is mainly due to their life cycle, which is longer than most bony fish, starting to reproduce at large sizes and several years after birth (in some cases even 15-18 years) and, consequently, they are easily fished before when they can contribute, by reproducing, to the maintenance of populations. Their meat, however, is in great demand on the market, so much that Italy is among the top three shark consuming countries in the world. This high consumption is explained, with regard to some species, such as dogfish (Mustelus spp), because the meat without thorns is widely used for children, even often found in school canteens; in other cases, however, such as spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias), emery or sea calf (Lamna nasus), blue shark (Prionace glauca), due to a lack of awareness of the consumer, who does not know he's consuming shark meat .

In the Upper Adriatic (almost exclusively by the fishermen of Chioggia) at least from the second half of the seventeenth century and disappeared in the 60s of the last century, longline fishing was practiced (a hemp rope, up to a mile long and bearing, in short regular distances, of the armrests (or bràgole) in thinner rope, armed with hook, for a total of about 300-500 hooks for each longline). The main species caught were the dogfish, once very abundant, and the small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula). The canesca (Galeorhinus galeus), the blue shark (Prionace glauca) and the squad or angelfish (Squatina squatina) were also frequently caught, whose skin, dried already on board, was used by the wood craftsmen as the current sandpaper. Offshore, in the summer and autumn season, other large sharks were caught, among which the gray shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) and the thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus) were common (Fortibuoni et al., 2009). Today, shark meat comes to market mainly from bottom trawls, steering wheels and gillnets. Currently, the populations of these predators have drastically reduced, even in the upper Adriatic and there is an urgent need for the implementation of management and mitigation measures. Pending this, the consumer himself could begin to make a difference, because, as in all cases, the market does not provide what the consumer does not ask for.