Legends of the Mediterranean
Over 100 Interviews were recorded for the Mediterranean Oral History Project. Please contact us for more information.
Cadaques, Spain
“It used to be a way of life. Now it is just food. There used to be a lot of fishermen here. Now there are only a few.” She says there used to be lots of people selling fish in the street. Now it is only her. She points to the tourist shops and restaurants across from her little fish stand and says, “there used to be groceries sold there and rows of fish being sold here.”
– Fisher woman – 80-years old
Image by Abouzeid, Kerkennah, Tunisia
“I think the sea is the breath of the earth… The most important is thing is the new generation. They need to be educated in the schools about the sea and learn how to not use it as a trash basket.
— Clemente Serafini Italian, Rome, diver and crewmember of Heraclitus
Image by Abouzeid, Tunisia
”Once the problem was selling and not fishing. Now the problem is fishing and not selling… The demand for fish is bigger than supply. ”
Former fisherman and son of many generations of fisherman and a FISH MONGER in shop. Imperia, Italy
Image by Handte, onboard Heraclitus in Marseille
Image by Handte, onboard Heraclitus in Tabarka, Tunisia
Fishing Port in Tunisia, Image by Abouzeid, Sicily
Image by Abouzeid, Kerkennah, Tunisia
”I have two sons who are following me into this kind of work. I had enough money to send all my children to university. I wanted to give them the choice. Only one son wanted to do something else. But the oldest son was always sneaking around the boat yard. He did not want to go to university. He wanted to build ships. I sent the two that followed me to maritime school. One became a captain and the other became a captain/engineer. They both served at sea but they returned to the family shipyard.”
”Wooden boats are the future. Plastic boats have problems. What are you going to do with the plastic? You can’t recycle it. The region wants to promote wood boat building and the government understands the importance of an apprentice program to the future of boat building.
We are respected. We were asked to represent the region in the big boat show in Genoa. I also went to Brussels to promote the work.”
— Fisherman and owner of his own boat yard specialist in traditional wooden boats, Porto Santo Stefano, Italy
Image by Abouzeid, Kerkennah, Tunisia
Fishermen in Italy, Image by Johanna Eurich
Fishing shack in Corsica, France Image by Johanna Eurich