Journal of the seventythird day on board

14th July, 1999

Lots of Swordfish

The wind has got up and we are forced to go back.
By now we’ve become a regular feature on the jetty at Lampedusa. Near us the fishermen of Mazara del Vallo and Marsala are unloading their catch.
We watch them unload around 70 swordfish, the result of 2 days fishing adopting 'conso'.
Unfortunately, they are all young and immature fish, averaging 6 or 7 kilos each.
The 'conso' is a selective type of fishing because it only takes fish which are hungry and so the whole bank of fish is never destroyed, but sometimes it happens. The fishermen are sorry, or at least it seems that way.
In the catch there are also 8 beautiful 'lampughe' and a pair of very thin tuna that must have just left the egg.