Slow Fish 2017 – the international event dedicated to the world of fish and marine ecosystems from May 18 to 21, 2017 in Genoa’s Porto Antico (Italy) – sees the participation of Terra Madre fishing communities from different countries around the world.
The Slow Fish network consists of over 100 small-scale fishing communities.
According to the FAO, around 90% of the 35 million people recorded globally as fishers are classified a small-scale. In addition, the total annual catch attributable to small-scale fishing is almost the same as the industrial fishing catch, despite global subsidies in favor of the former being about one fifth of the size of subsidies granted to industrial fishing operations.
Below, details on some of the representatives of small, sustainable fishing participating at Slow Fish:
The bay of Port Phillip in Melbourne (Australia) has been a source of seafood for the local indigenous population for over 80,000 years. Today only 10 commercial fishers remain. One of them, Kat McAdam, shares her fishing experience at Slow Fish, along with Rosa Mitchell, a Melbourne chef with a Sicilian background working to promote freshly-caught sardines as sustainable and healthy food.
From Brazil, the shellfish farmers community of Porto Belo and the mangrove oyster farmers community of the Recôncavo Baiano.
A delegation of fishers from the Caribbean presents the Slow Fish Caribe project, which involves different communities including producers from the Providencia Black Crab Presidium (Colombia) and the artisanal fishermen in Costa Rica facing severe problems because of lionfish, an invasive species originally from the Pacific and Indian oceans. The project is funded by the European Union to promote the preservation of coral reefs and coastal biodiversity.
From the Democratic Republic of Congo, Slow Food Tanganyika presents its project for the protection of biodiversity in Lake Tanganyika: one of the largest lakes in Africa, and one of the most fishy, today threatened by pollution, overexploitation and overfishing, deforestation, erosion and silting.
In Denmark, Thorupstrand’s fishing families have pooled all their assets together in a guild to stop the partitioning of their fisheries after a government decision to privatize them. Fishermen from the Thorupstrand community will be present at the Slow Fish market together with chef Kresten Kronborg, promoter of Jutland’s products and communities.
Lidér Gòngora, Coordinator of the National Environmental Assembly of Ecuador, and Esteban Tapia of the Slow Food Chefs’ Alliance in Ecuador tell us about the work of the mangrove people who are resisting attempts to evict them. Only 30% of the mangrove remains today, while the other 70% mainly has been wiped out over time by the shrimp farming industry.
The Ngaparou community on the Senegalese coast, south of Dakar, has suffered from destructive fishing practices and increasing pressure from foreign industrial fleets. In 2007 they created a management committee, which today involves 450 men and women for the fair and responsible sharing and stewarding of resources. Abdoulaye Papa Ndiaye, Secretary-General of the Comité Local des Pêcheurs (CLP) de Ngaparou will talk at Slow Fish.
At Slow Fish you can also meet: the fishers from the Loire in France who have redeveloped the river and now want to re-elaborate an ancient recipe, known to the Romans as Garum, a lacto-fermented sauce made with the leftovers of fish fillets; the producers of the Møre og Romsdal Salted Cod Presidium (Norway), who offer a taste of klippfisk (cod) in the Slow Fish market; and the inhabitants of Kerkennah in Tunisia, who seek to bring an ancient and unique fishing art called the Charfia back to life.
All the latest news about Slow Fish 2017 is online at: http://slowfish.slowfood.it/en/, and it is possible to request press accreditation here.
For further information, please contact:
Slow Food International Press Office
[email protected] – Twitter: @SlowFoodPress
Slow Food is a global grassroots organization that envisions a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet. Slow Food involves over a million activists, chefs, experts, youth, farmers, fishers and academics in over 160 countries. Among them, a network of around 100,000 Slow Food members are linked to 1,500 local chapters worldwide, contributing through their membership fee, as well as the events and campaigns they organize. As part of the network, more than 2,400 Terra Madre food communities practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality food around the world.
Slow Fish. During Slow Fish, held biennially in Genoa (Italy), academics, researchers, small-scale fishers, representatives of public bodies and enthusiasts meet to discuss sustainable fishing and production, responsible fish consumption and the health of marine and freshwater ecosystems. A large market, conferences, meetings, workshops and tasting sessions make Slow Fish a unique event entirely dedicated to the world of fish. The event takes place biennially, in the odd years.