Fishing

In the article Fishing Industry (II-151 ff.) we have already devoted several pages of this work to the subject, and we refer the reader to them, also drawing attention to the short articles describing the various kinds of gear used in this industry. As a fine and authoritative synthesis of this interesting subject, however, we wish to record here an excellent article by the distinguished naturalist Adolfo César de Noronha, published in the Diário de Notícias of 1 July 1932.

“

The Madeira archipelago, as a group of essentially oceanic islands – formed by the mighty action of submarine volcanoes – does not show around the edges of its islands the broad, flat submerged shelves usually found around the continents.

The adjoining sea floor is very rugged in relief. Beyond the 100-braça sounding line – which around the main island lies sometimes only half a mile from the coast, as off Ponta do Garajau (‘tern point’), and at most 3 or 4 miles away, as off Porto da Cruz (‘harbour of the cross’) and Ponta do Pargo (‘sea bream point’) – the floor falls rapidly towards the abysses of 2,000 braças and more that yawn between the Canary Islands and Madeira, or between Madeira and mainland Portugal.

With deep waters and a rough sea floor, the fisherman of these islands must favour floating hook gear, and uses more rarely the gear that requires contact with the ocean bed.

Thus steam trawlers, those modern instruments of intensive fishing that supply mainland Portugal with a great mass of fish for food, are excluded from these broken island waters by the nature and depth of the sea floor.

Like the oceanographers, this rough fisherman, brutalised by alcohol, has also marked out different bathymetric zones in the sea for his own use. It is a convention based on observed facts which does not depart from, but rather coincides with, what science has already established. It is an interesting phenomenon of the popular mind that well deserves inclusion in the study of folklore.

The natural edge of the island shelf, set by hydrographers at about 100 braças, is known to fishermen as the bairil or bairilho, perhaps a corruption of beiril, which in turn seems to derive from beira (edge). Some also call it the sarrilho do baixo, or simply the baixo.

Beyond this edge, they say, the sea abica, meaning that the floor drops away more steeply. They give the word a very Madeiran sense, for among the common people abicar means to hurl down from a height, to fall suddenly.

Out in the depths, beyond the rim of the bairil, it is customary to distinguish three zones: the alto, the altura and the altio.

Together these zones correspond to the upper part of the oceanographers’ abyssal region, which some place from 200 braças downwards. Here depths are measured in linhas (fishermen’s depth unit of about 23 braças, c. 50 m) – the fisherman’s bathymetric unit, equal to roughly 23 braças.

The alto may be defined as running from about 10 linhas, or 230 braças, to a depth of roughly 15 linhas. The altura runs from this sounding to some 25 linhas, or 650 braças, the maximum depth at which the gear is made to touch the bottom. Finally, the altio is the region stretching indefinitely beyond, out to sea, which they also call the golfo; there the fishing line often reaches a depth of 850 braças or even more, yet normally always stays clear of the bottom.

“

On the submarine plateau, and likewise seaward of its edge on the great slope, down to about 200 braças, fishermen catch the species generally called coastal. These are either sedentary, in which case they make up a large part of what is called “good fish”, or nomadic, moving from the coast to the open sea and travelling everywhere without going very deep, and so deserving the name of coastal-pelagic. These in turn are sometimes simply erratic, and at other times migratory: long-distance travellers somewhat irregular in their passage, like the tuna, which come from no one knows where and go no one knows where.

Finally, in the deepest zone the abyssal species are caught. Some of them yield a great deal, such as the black scabbardfish, and since they are not migratory they supply the markets with a reliable product on which the consumer can count all year round.

If we except the group of the dogfish – or sharks in the widest sense of the term – which are almost always species of the lowest quality and which we place in the third category, it may be said that the most delicately flavoured fish consists, in general, of the sedentary inhabitants of the coastal and abyssal zones, while second-quality fish is almost always represented by the markedly nomadic species, which travel more or less widely. The family richest in species, and one of the richest in individuals, is that of the mackerel and tuna. It is also the most important in economic value, although it does not enter the first category for flavour. Characteristically migratory, this group, represented by 15 edible species, the largest of which is the bluefin tuna, crosses the pelagic and coastal zones indifferently, as it is driven by the biological needs of the moment, determined by currents, temperature, plankton, etc.

Next in yield comes the family of the trichiurids, with the silver scabbardfish, very irregular in its passages, and the abundant black scabbardfish, a remarkable and faithful friend of the poor, a friend all year round, hauled up from the great depths. This family, however, is represented by only five species of commercial value, for all the others included in it are rare and abyssal and are of almost purely scientific interest.

Richer in species than this is the esteemed family of the pargo (sea bream), a sedentary group that numbers eleven members in these seas. It is followed by that of the grouper, all of it prized and likewise sedentary, which contains six, of which two, the cherne and the robaldo – not to be confused with the robalo of the mainland – may be considered abyssal.

With some six species, all of them wanderers within the nearby waters and of some economic importance, comes the less esteemed family of the chicharro (horse mackerel). With four each come that of the requême – which is not the requeime, but one of the cantarilhos of the fishermen of Portugal – and the hake, a species very rare in Madeiran waters; these two families are considered among the finest by general consent of consumers.

That of the alfonsim – or imperador of the mainland – a tasty family of the deep zone, numbers only three species. It includes the most delicate fish in the Lisbon market, and the tastiest of all we know: the almost despised olho-de-vidro, which by an irony of fate has even been given an obscene name by the foul-mouthed fishwives of Ribeira Nova!

This berycid, for such is its family name, is not entirely foreign to the seas of Madeira, but its great rarity relegates it to the field of scientific values that ichthyology prides itself on having frequently searched out in this deep zone of the Atlantic.

Other families of bony fish are represented in these seas, but as they are of lesser importance we refrain from making special mention of them.

The dogfish, or sharks, have a certain value. Being fish of inferior quality, they are eaten mostly by the poorer classes, after being salted and dried in the sun, and are sent in large quantities to the north of Madeira, where they are bought as a substitute for salt cod.

The livers of almost all the fish of this group – hence called ‘oil fish’ – yield an oil used chiefly for lighting the fishing itself. The skin of one of them, the gata – which should not be confused with the gata of Portugal, being rather identical to what is called carocho there – is used by cabinetmakers and carpenters for sanding wood, just as on the mainland.

Among the shellfish, limpets are prominent, gathered mainly on the Desertas (‘deserted islands’) by the fishermen of the village of Caniçal (‘reed bed’). From time to time a certain sea snail appears on the market, as does a particular crab, a cosmopolitan crustacean found in almost all seas but which seems not to inhabit the coasts of Portugal. Lobster and lagostim are also sold, though they are not identical to their namesakes on the Portuguese mainland.

To these edible invertebrates must be added some shell-less molluscs, such as the octopus, the cuttlefish, the squid and the pêta. The last belongs to summer and autumn and is sought by fishermen at a high price when it grows scarce towards the end of the season, because at that time it is the preferred bait of all for catching the profitable black scabbardfish.

And to close this brief enumeration, we shall mention two animals of a higher order – two species of turtle, one of which is edible; but it is not the object of organised fishing, being simply caught by chance.’

“

The fishing gear is not especially varied; hook gear predominates here, as the physical conditions of the environment demand. In a brief classification we shall divide this gear into three groups: hook gear, nets, and pots or creels. The first either have a rod and line, or consist simply of lines.

Among those with rod and line, some carry a single hook, such as the salto for tuna, the rod for skipjack tuna (gaiado) and the fishing rod; others carry a greater or smaller number of hooks, and these are the briqueira (a Madeiran hand line for bottom fishing) and the cherriola (vertical multi-hook deep-water line). Among the hook gear made solely of lines, a distinction must also be drawn between those fitted with a single hook, such as the agulheira (mid-water line for garfish) and the tuna line, and those with many hooks; in this latter group are the gorazeira (deep-water longline for sea bream), the longline and the gear for scabbardfish.

The nets amount to a few seine nets – of the xávega type – which are worked from time to time on the great beach of the island of Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’) and in three or four open, sandy nooks on the south coast of Madeira, together with some set nets, generally without trammel. There is, however, a considerable number of bag nets (redes-de-fole), funnel-shaped gear used for fishing certain small species at the surface. Alongside these there is also the scoop net (peneiro).

In the category of pots there are three types, differing in shape and in the material of construction, which may be split cane, pine lath, rush or osier.

The fishing industry has evolved little since the last official inquiry carried out in Madeira 42 years ago.

As the most significant event, albeit a short-lived one, we should record the laying of a tuna trap (armação, a fixed trap-net) in the great bay of the island of Porto Santo.

This experiment, attempted by the industrialist J. A. Judice Fialho for three consecutive years, from 1910 to 1912, and set up in connection with a canning factory on the island of Madeira, would have brought substantial benefits to the fishing industry, had it been possible to adapt gear of that kind to the waters of the archipelago.

The factory, opened in 1909, remained. The tuna trap, however, had to go back to the Algarve, whence it had come at great expense.

In the last twenty-five years a humble implement – a lamp burning paraffin or fish oil, with a far greater illuminating power than the old lanterns – has altered established practice, to the notable advantage of the industry.

The tuna that come to Madeira in summer, especially the albacore tuna (which is not the albacora of the Algarve fishermen), are now, thanks to that lamp, taken on the line at night by the deep-sea fishermen while they are fishing for scabbardfish.

At the same time, fishing for ruama (fishermen’s name for small shoaling fish such as mackerel and horse mackerel) – the name they give to mackerel and horse mackerel together when gathered in a shoal or ruma – which was formerly carried out only in coastal waters with the bag net and the old lantern, is now practised by some fishermen out at sea, at the surface as always, but in the grounds of the black scabbardfish (espada preta) and even beyond. They travel far because the catch is sometimes rewarding, thanks to the modern strong-light lamp, however primitive it looks.

It is, in the end, genuine lamplight fishing, in which the harpoon is replaced by a line or a net.

The scabbardfish catch has intensified in recent years, and in summer this increase owes something indirectly to the fishing lamp (candeio), which, especially on moonless nights, draws the pêta – the preferred bait – to the surface of the ocean.

There are days when two to three thousand scabbardfish reach the Funchal market alone, and not long ago that number exceeded four thousand, equivalent to a weight of 7 to 8 tonnes.

In the boats used, which are nearly always very small, some slight progress must also be recorded.

Petrol motors have been fitted to some boats, but most of these craft, like all the sailing boats, are open boats, that is, without a full deck, with only a small awning forward and another aft, which they call leitos. With such boats, if shipwrecks are not more frequent, it is because the seas of this zone are very calm and typhoons truly rare!

“

As we write, the markets are overflowing with bigeye tuna and the cannery is at work.

This is the season when this species passes on a large scale, as the currents and the plankton bring it into the vicinity of the archipelago.

If this tuna, mixed with the albacore (Thunnus alalunga; Portuguese atum voador), arrives in numbers in Madeiran waters from spring to the beginning of summer, the year goes well for the fisherman, who draws the best of his earnings from this run.

But woe to them if the beasts pass – the bocas-de-panela – that mortal enemy of the tuna, which wounds, kills, scatters and puts them to flight, when it does not close tightly round them! ‘The bocas-de-panela have come!’ This is the cry of desolation we have often heard from the fisherman, tired, disillusioned and hungry, as he hauls his small boat up on the beach at the end of a day of toil, and at times of terrible dangers! Then he sees all his hopes dashed, above all if the tiger of the ocean, instead of merely crossing these seas, keeps attacking the passing tuna, as has been observed in certain years.

In that case there is misery in countless homes in Machico and Paul do Mar (‘marsh by the sea’), to say nothing of the lesser fishing ports, nor indeed of Câmara de Lobos. That port, the most important of all, seeks compensation in the great depths when the tuna fails it, turning to its year-round speciality, the black scabbardfish.

The boca-de-panela has not yet been identified. Everything suggests, however, that it is not a fish but a mammal – the famous and ferocious cetacean which the fisherman of the Algarve unfortunately knows well by the name of roaz de bandeira.

It seems to us that one means of hunting and driving off so harmful an animal would be the use of firearms and explosives. Only the State, however, and no other body, could undertake the task, arranging matters in the most efficient and least costly way. And the State owes this protection to the poor fisherman, not only in his own immediate interest but also in that of the whole community.

Generally speaking, we can say that, thanks to more intensive fishing and a certain improvement in methods, output has increased in recent years.

It should be noted, however, that some coastal species are becoming rarer by the day and tending towards disappearance.

This harm is due to the explosive bomb and to the abusive and criminal reduction of the mesh of certain nets and sieve nets. Although it does not affect migratory fish or those of the great depths, it falls heavily on the native species of the shallows.

Remedying this harm is an almost impossible task. The law has foreseen everything, but its enforcement is impracticable.

The poacher who throws explosives condemns himself, risking the loss of his life, or at least of an eye, his arms or his hands, as has so often happened!’

In 1937 the ‘Casas dos Pescadores’ (Fishermen’s Houses) were created, and they have rendered such notable services to the fishing community; the decree of 20 August of that year laid down the basis of their operation. The founding of one of these ‘Casas’ in Madeira was not long in coming, thanks to the efforts of the then harbour master of the harbour of Funchal (Porto do Funchal), Artur Barbosa Carmona. It began operating in 1939, with first-aid posts in the most important fishing centres. In Machico a house was acquired for this purpose, and it was formally inaugurated on 17 July 1943. The ‘Casas dos Pescadores’ provide medical assistance, allowances for invalids and their families, the upkeep of a school, shelter for the destitute, etc., as circumstances permit. In the parish (freguesia) of Paul do Mar, as already mentioned, the District General Council (Junta Geral do Distrito) had ten blocks built containing fifty dwellings for the poorest members of this community.

The fishing industry in Madeira is of considerable importance. In the fifteen ports with customs inspection, fish of various species worth 2,725 contos (one million réis) de réis were landed in 1941, 3,614 contos in 1942 and 4,800 contos in 1943, the largest quantities being in the ports of Funchal, Câmara de Lobos and Machico.