Pesca Tradizionale della Laguna di Orbetello
Orbetello Lagoon Traditional Fishing
The Orbetello lagoon has been fished for a very long time and the trade still matters to the town. Sea bass, sea bream, grey mullet, eel, the small clams called calcinelli, mazzancolle shrimp and the winter crabs known as femminelle are the usual catch, and the processing tradition is as old as the fishing.
Designation
- Certification
- Slow Food Presidium
- Category
- Fresh fish, molluscs and crustaceans
Where it is made
Orbetello Lagoon, Grosseto province
How it is made
The gear is the lavoriero, the martavello and the tramaglio, modernised but still passive: the fish come to the nets on their own with the season and the tide, with no bait. The lavoriero, once a timber barrier and now mechanised, sits in the channels between lagoon and sea and uses the flood tide to funnel shoals through decoy chambers into a capture chamber, where they are sorted alive by size and either lifted out or let go. Mature fish are allowed through to spawn in the coastal water, and the young re-enter on the ebb.