[CINC] Italian documentary "Il Mare di Joe" screened at MBNMS

[Paul Jr. Petrich]

  A wonderful documentary about legendary Italian fishermen who emigrated from the small island of Marettimo, one of the Egadi Islands off the west coast of Sicily, was shown by the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Thursday night at the Monterey Convention Center. Produced in Italy with English captions, it's director, Enzo Incontro is involved in establishing and promoting Marine Protected Areas in Italy, on the model of those we have in our Sanctuaries. Italy now has six, and four of them are in Sicily, the largest being the Egadi Islands. Marettimo is the most distant island of this group from the west coast of Sicily, and it now has its entire coast designated as MPA zones, which vary in degree of protection. Enzo got his degree in Environmental Science at the University of Catania, in Sicily ( where the football team that I coached this year played). Enzo has received recognition and numerous prizes for other films teaching respect for the sea, including one he produced in collaboration with UNICEF ( Lezioni di Mare ).   This film, produced with two months of filming, four months of editing, traveling from California to Alaska, visiting the historical sites linked to the inhabitants of Marettimo transplanted in Monterey, documented the activity of the fishermen up to their arrival in Alaska for the salmon fishing season. But most astounding to me, was to witness that marine biological data gathering, first pioneered in the Bristol Bay area on the Kvichak River, 1956 through 1960, still remains the pivotal data gathering methodology that is the basis of Alaska's very sustainable salmon fisheries! This was moving to me, as I worked as a fisheries aid, in a camp of seven, of which three were U. of Washington marine biologist, on that pioneering scientific venture. My job was to merely catch, enumerate, and tag the Red Salmon. I was not a volunteer, as it was a paid job: But it goes to show, every thing we set out to do in our own regional way, may have unforeseen good consequences. The very same methods of enumeration are used in those remote salmon migration routes, however, the aids and biologist no longer live in tents. The Marettimo fishermen who migrated themselves to Monterey ( and San Pedro) , then seasonally to Alaska, did very well by the "Red Gold" they caught in well managed fishing grounds. This film spells out their appreciation for an environmental effort that shows what can be done right when fisher-persons, marine biologist, and government regulation work together toward the common goal of sustainability. It has already screened in a Marine Reserve in Sicily, and is now used as another Lezioni di Mare.
    		 	   		  
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