Fishing Permits in Venice

On our 4th day in Italy, we ventured off of the island of Venice to the mainland. Here we stopped by the fish market in Chioggia. Our two speakers for the day, a marine biologist and a director of the fish markets, spread lots of knowledge to us about how the fish markets work and the rules and routines of the fisherman in the area.

We initially were able to visit inside the place where the fish auctions take place. These auctions take place starting at 4 am and 3 pm and often have crowds of people waiting outside before the auctions begin. The strategy or form of auctions done involve "whisper auctions" where the consumers will whisper there desired bid for the fish and the highest bid will win.

We then went inside for a presentation from a marine biologist about the local traffic of fishing in Venice, both in the Adriatic Sea and in the Venice Lagoons. One of the main focuses that was very interesting to me was the introductions of a new clam from the Philippines. This clam named the Tapes Philippinarum, was introduced in 1983 and became a focal point of the fishing in the area due to the clam being able to adapt to the new environment so well and for fisherman due to the wealth they received from this clam farming. This extreme rise in clam farming though did not come without its downsides. The rise in this farming led to the destruction of the environment as the rakes used to farm these clams were very harmful. To combat this, local authorities created authorized zones to do this clam farming and authorized certain rakes that are supposed to help reduce the amount of harm to the ecosystem. This causes the number of fisherman to be reduced from 2200 to 1500. Also, outside of any of these zones fisherman had to farm/ fish by hand. In readings, we found that there are some suggestions to allocate these farming permits through an auction in order to increase fairness and discourage this harmful acts. It also mentioned how it may be better to opt for this auction over a sort of "grandfathering" technique where those who have fished in these areas may keep the areas and pass them along through generations. It still appears though that not much has been done with these permits as there are many restricted zones where any sort of fishing is illegal, but as we learned from the speaker, the risk of getting caught along with the penalty/ fine with being caught does not supersede the gain in revenue from this illegal fishing.

Following this talk, we were able to explore the fish market and take in all the amazing smells!