That was a luxury for a fisherman; a fisherman would take a grater care of his boots than of his hands. About 50 or 60 years ago, my father used 20 fishing nets, 360 m long in total, and today my son throws 5 km of nets at one go.
Danilo Latin, a fisherman from Zambratija (1960)
Fishermen
Although life near the sea is closely linked to the fishing, the professional fishing activity in Umag was not developed at all in the past. In the absence of a well-functioning fish market, the fishermen were often forced to exchange their catch for agricultural produces. Only a handful of people from Umag and Savudrija engaged in fishing trade as such, while for the rest, fishing was just a secondary occupation in addition to the agriculture. They would be mainly hired during the fishing season, sometimes even as “day” fishermen. In fishing families, tradition was passed on from generation to generation. The head of the family was also the captain of the vessel (capobarca), while the crew members were his sons, brothers and nephews.
The first turning point for the fishermen after the Second World War was the boat engine, followed by the introduction of rubber boots, the use of lighter, synthetic fibre nets instead of the cotton ones and the installation of mechanic fishing net haulers that arrived to Umag in 1970s.
The fishermen are usually shown with their face and forehead wrinkled by the sun and the wind, but their callous hands, course palms hardened by the salt and the fishing nets, and their back curved by oars and ropes, cannot be seen.
Predrag Matvejević, (The Mediterranean breviary)
Fishing families
The most famous fishing families of the 19th century were the Favrettos, the Grassis, the Venturins and the Vittors, although there were some fishermen coming from the Vidalis, the Giraldis, the Sodomacos and the Bessichs. At the beginning of the 20th century, more and more professional fishermen came from other families such as the Majers, the Zanacolas, the Latins and the Boses.
…..Professional fishermen would leave the harbour at night in groups of three, carrying their dinner in a pot bundled up in a napkin or a towel, which they would eat after casting their fishing nets.
Giuseppe Bessich, (Umago Viva 14.) the pre-war memories.
The Favretto Family (Teno)
Parents: Luigi and Barbara (Giraldi)
SOURCE: HR-DAPA-78, Lučka kapetanija u Rovinju / Capitaneria di porto Rovigno/ Rovinj Port Authority, b . 51, 63
The Grassi Family
Parents: Giovani Grassi (1855-1935) and Maria (Favretto)
SOURCE: HR-DAPA-78, Lučka kapetanija u Rovinju / Capitaneria di porto Rovigno/ Rovinj Port Authority, b . 51, 63
The Grassi Family
Parents: Giuseppe and Antonia (Bose)The Giraldi Family
Parents: Angelo and Maria (Sforzina)
The Giraldi Family
Parents: Ernesto and Albina (Bubich)SOURCE: HR-DAPA-78, Lučka kapetanija u Rovinju / Capitaneria di porto Rovigno/ Rovinj Port Authority, b . 51, 63
Fishermen associations and gilds
For centuries, in order to protect their craft, the Umag fishermen were members of a gild dedicated to the Saint Andrew the Apostle, almost until the 20th century. Since 1908 they have been joining the Fishermen Association (Unione dei pescatori), first lead by Giuseppe Grassi, as president and Domenico Bessich, as vice-president.
A traditional Umag event was the celebration of Saint Andrew which took place on 30th November each year and was opened with the Holly Mass and in presence of the town’s authority figures, all fishermen and their families. It was a special day dedicated to the fishing trade, when the parish priest would bless the boats on the shore and receive some fish from the fishermen in return. Children would visit fishermen door-to-door and sing the following hymn to Saint Andrew: Sant’Andrea pescatore, che pescava in Galilea, tuti i pesci che ‘l ciapeva, a tuti noi el ne li devideva… Viva apostolo S. Andrea. (To Saint Andrew who fished in Galilee, for all the fish he caught and gave to us… Long live Saint Andrew the Apostle!). The children would then be rewarded by fish too. Nowadays, the Saint Andrew celebration tradition is still maintained in Savudrija.
I came to Umag from Vižinada on 16th of August 1957 . My parents asked me where I was going. My father told me to go and see, and if I didn’t like it to come back home. How old were you when you arrived to Umag? Seventeen. They let me go because my brother was here. Were there any women from Umag working in the factory? Yes, but they were all older. Most of us working at the factory were young, we had to fulfil work targets and we all came to Umag. All bosses in Umag were Italians and if you didn’t speak Italian, they would calla us “sciava” I could speak some Italian, but was using the Istrian dialect…
Livia Tirello (née Ritoša, 1940) was a worker at the Dragonja factory.
THE WOMEN AND THE FISHING
Even though the women were not fishermen by trade, they usually helped their husbands with the cleaning and repairing of the nets and would often sell the fish. However, they would regularly go crabbing. They’d catch crabs from the shore during low tide season in February. Extracting seashells (cape) and sea snails (naridole) was a woman’s job too. For the women living in Bogorodična St. (via della Madonna) catching clams (catar cape) on today’s New quay area was a form of entertainment. With the first cold weather, especially in January when the tide was low, beautiful sandbars covered with black mud and algae would form there providing a suitable environment for the reproduction of clams. The women would go to the site in the early afternoon with two essential tools: an old kitchen knife for mud probing and seashell extraction and a pot to carry them, preferably with a hole that would help the water quickly drain. They would extract seashells till the dusk and return home shivering but happy with the big catch.
The women were the main labour force in the fish processing and canning plant, first ran by Sanquinetti in the 1920s and then by the Arrigoni factory. There were 400 employees at the Umag plant, the majority of which were women. According to the records, 3899 people worked in the Istrian fish industry in 1930 and 80% of them were women. After the Second World War, the production continued by the Dragonja factory that employed women not only from the nearby villages, but also from the hinterland and the most remote parts of Istria.
Our hands were all damaged by the fish oil and salt.. The skin was salty to the touch..It would get burnt by the sun and the sea… I had the blood dripping on my hand..I remember a colleague wiping my hand all covered with blood…My overall chafed me and she wrapped a cloth, which they had ironed to get rid of the bacteria (for disinfection), around it..
Livia Tirello (née Ritoša, 1940) Said that they would sometimes work 24 hours per day and after the shift, the workers would have a swim in the sea in front of the factory to wash off the smell, the salt, the oil and scales of fish.
(UV, 129.)
(UV, 57.)
CHILDREN-FISHERMEN
Due to harsh social and economic conditions, employment was looked for at very early age. Thus, at the beginning of the 20th century, the fishing licences were issued to 13-year-old children allowing them to start their working life at teenage age as employees of their family business or working on a ship (padrona) as fishermen’s helpers, (pescatore), seamen (marinaio) or fishing rowers (voga per la pesca).
…I started going to the sea with my granddad Antonio Tirello (Nando) when I was 7. We would use nets and lures to catch fish
Francesco Zacchigna,from Lovrečice (1953.)
What are fishing grounds?
In the past, the locals used to fish mainly in shallow coastal waters, a mile away from the shore, within a broad area, while the open sea fishing was predominately reserved for the fishermen from Chioggia (in Croatian: Ćozoti).
Under Austrian and Italian administration, the fishing in the coastal area was characterised by small-scale fishing or seasonal bay closing. During their natural migrations, the fishes would take shelter in bays that would then be closed for fishing purposes. Such areas were traditionally called fishing grounds (peschiere) and the most developed ones were located in northwest Istria. Thus, there used to be many fishing grounds along Umag’s shores, which were part of land estates owned by landowners, communes and the Church. The owners were forced to lease portions of their estate to local fishing families, fishermen’s gilds or privileged citizens that paid the lease in cash or fish.
