“The State, without our knowledge, has decided to seize our boats, because that’s what it’s all about.” The fishermen of the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria did not take well, even if it had been in the air for days, the news of the fishing block for the whole of November after the canonical biological closure of October. The news was communicated to the shipowners on 29 October, the day they showed up at the Harbor Office to collect the documents to be able to set sail again. The directive coming from Rome is clear: all boats authorized to use trawl nets and rapid trawl nets are obliged to remain in port.
The Ministry’s provision concerns the Gsa 8, 9, 10 and 11 fishing zones, therefore the Tyrrhenian coasts, which naturally also include the Calabrian ones. A hard blow for the navy of our region, which from Cetraro to Reggio Calabria has a fleet of around sixty boats. «Each boat feeds at least three families», thunders Carlo Laganà, Nicotera’s owner who we meet together with many other colleagues in the dock of the port of Gioia Tauro. «Not to mention the related industries – he adds – including restaurants, wholesalers, etc.». The new closure imposed is based on exceeding the limit of days, around a thousand more, but the fishermen complain about the lack of foresight on the part of those who govern the sector: «We have done 1050 more days – explains Laganà – we were informed on 18 August 2025. However, we already knew about the exceeding of the ceiling in January, but no one moved in time to prevent them from stopping fishing for another month. In August the fishing days were reduced from five to four, now they’re stopping us for another month, how can we survive?”.
The daily reality of a fishing boat owner is made up of taxes, salaries and mortgages to pay. «The fishermen – concludes Laganà – have incurred debts after the biological shutdown: work on the construction site, purchase of nets and steel cables, overhaul of the engine. And the workers you have to pay even if you don’t go fishing. I ask the Ministry if these decisions are taken to protect Italian fishermen or the multinationals that have to import the catch?”.
«This is a blow – adds Nicola Deleonardo, owner of the fishing vessel “Paradise II”, docked in the port of Vibo Marina – because with 16 working days a month you cannot maintain a business that has to support the expenses of the sailors, consultancy, taxes that have to be paid while the boats remain in the port. And the State is behind on payments for biological detentions. Those for 2011 and 2012 have only been paid in part and we are still waiting for the installments for 2023 and 2024. They claim that they postponed it by a few days due to bureaucratic issues. But I want to ask one thing of those who govern us: they shorten our days, they stop us for an extra month, they delay payments for the months of biological closure, how do we manage to run a business in this way? I have a boat that costs 25 thousand euros a month. We are at a standstill, while our competitors in the Mediterranean – Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco – continue to work. According to these gentlemen, is this justice?”.
The new generation: «There is no future in this sector»
The old fishermen complain, the young people who have recently taken up this profession look to the future with growing concern. In the dock of the port of Gioia Tauro, where the owners of the fishing boats have decided to meet to discuss the extension of the biological closure for another month, there are also two very young people who have chosen to earn a living from the sea. A choice, however, which clashes with a reality that is always complex and full of unknowns. In fact, it is not the hardness of work on a fishing boat that scares them, but the growing limitations on fishing that reduce earnings, while expenses continue to grow and the space to develop the family business is inexorably limited.
“If we look at what has been happening in recent years, we can say that our parents left us a burden and not something to build a future for us.” It is the bitter consideration of Fabrizio Blasi, the son of a sailor who after school climbed onto his father’s boat to continue the family tradition. «I have always liked going to sea – explains the young Blasi – which is why I chose to take this path, a tiring job for sure, but one that I like. But if things don’t change, I don’t think this profession will be able to offer a future for us. In fact, I think soon there will no longer be the margins to put the fishing boat back into the sea.”
Mattia Calzone thinks the same, having been working with his father on the family fishing boat for two years, “intimidated” by the difficulties he is encountering on the road and which makes it more complicated to face the physical and mental fatigue that this job entails.
«We bought a fishing boat two years ago – says Mattia – an investment that my father wanted to make to ensure my future. Unfortunately, it seems to me that the Italian state does not give us many opportunities to make our way in this sector. We wanted to continue our families’ tradition, but at the moment the conditions no longer exist. The bureaucracy is a boulder, the taxes are too high. Such an activity cannot be carried out in this way. The State asks us to pay, but if we can’t go to sea, how can we get by?”. Questions that remain pending, such as the future of the fishermen of the Calabrian Tyrrhenian Sea.