Descendant of fishermen, Jacinto Silva didn't exactly have a choice of profession. “When I finished school, I went fishing”, he says, without much emotion, as if he were just reporting the fact that the sun had risen that day.
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Descendant of fishermen, Jacinto Silva didn't exactly have a choice of profession. “When I finished school, I went fishing”, he says, without much emotion, as if he were just reporting the fact that the sun had risen that day. Something inevitable, therefore.
In Caniçal, the eastern tip of the island of Madeira, where it is natural, and where most tuna vessels from Madeira or registered in the archipelago continue to depart, even today. These are vessels that, as the name implies, are dedicated to fishing for tuna, the noblest fish caught on the coast of Madeira.
The season usually lasts between April and October and must be used to the limit. Jacinto Silva invests a lot in the maintenance and improvement of his boat, which goes by the name of Autonomy. “This year alone it was 120.000€. Because this is like a rally car when the time comes it has to be at 100%.”
The tuna vessels spend five to six consecutive days at sea, return to land to unload the material and depart again. "The men arrive, take a hot shower at home and then leave," he explains. The biggest animals don't even go to the auction: "It's already ordered, we have contracts with the price defined in advance."
Tuna fishing in Madeira still uses an ancient technique, completely artisanal and more environmentally friendly, as it is completely selective. They call it vault and pole. "We make a decoy to attract the fish, it comes to the surface and then we make it jump with the pole." The explanation seems simple, but imagine this in the open sea, with tuna that weigh several tens of kilos, if not more. It's not for everyone.
And it's not for Master Jacinto, who hasn't gone to sea for a long time. In addition to being a shipowner, he also became president of Coopescamadeira — Fishermen's Cooperative of the Madeira Archipelago. His big fight now is to give better working conditions to the men at sea. And to end some European rules that, in his opinion, do not make much sense, such as the ban on catfish fishing, which is a by-catch for swordfish and which brought some extra income to fishermen. "The fish is still caught, it is inevitable because it is a deep-sea fish, it comes on the longline, but as there are zero quotas, we have to throw it overboard already dead."
