The Professional Fishing Association of Amorgos is the organization behind the project “Amorgorama—becoming part of the swarm“.
The association consists of about 40 fishermen and 23 vessels, their sizes varying from 5 to 20 meters. It has the goal to optimize the fishing practice in a sustainable way for the sake of both the marine life and the people working in the fishing industry.
A serious concern of the fishermen is the movement against the Greek fishing tradition and culture by paying coastal fishermen to destroy their Kaìki, their traditional Greek fishing boat, in the name of overfishing in the Mediterranean Sea.
It is important to point out that coastal fishing boats form the 96,5% of the Greek fishing fleet but bring only 40% of the total fish catch in Greece. On the contrary, big trawlers constitute 3,5% of the fishing industry but catch 60% of the total fish in the country (Hellenic Statistical Authority, 2019).
Therefore, one of the goals of the Professional Fishing Association of Amorgos is to protect the cultural heritage of coastal fishing while curbing the effects of overfishing and pollution of the sea in concise and powerful, “outside the box” way. We intend to use our knowledge of the sea and the topography, as well as our Kaìki and other fishing vessels to handle the continuously changing environment that defines the life on the islands.
In addition, a discussion has started among the fishermen about the definition of a minimum size of nets so that smaller fish don’t get caught.