Protecting the Mediterranean Coastal
Commons: The Need for a Holistic
Cultural-Ecological Valuing Approach
XV International Conference of the Society for Human
Ecology. Rio de Janeiro, 4 – 7 October, 2007
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Serge Collet
University of Calabria
MAJISE (Fallows)
Scientific adviser of the Environment Department of
the Province of Reggio Calabria
ECOST Project Partner 7
The coastalscape of Skylla‘s narrows. A
visible insight of this ancient naturalcultural value heritage (Odyssey XII, 92-98)
The long enduring horizontal dimension of
the mistaking property‘s view
In order to maintain his halieutical rent based on the swordfish
hunting and fishing, tuna traps and beach seines which are hired
for an annually 800 ducat, the Prince of Scilla, Count of Sinopoli,
claimed in 1776 against fishers and merchants (felucari) that the
Sea of Scilla was his property (dominio). This property is a
maritime fief which extends to more than 60 miles (as far as the
sight is able to scope). The marine extension of the land fief was
thus subject to the harsh rule of the violent extortion of the
halieutical economy products. Many fishermen were put in
prison for resisting this halieutical feudal order and because they
have claimed „that a such a property right of the foreshore and
the sea hurts the right of people (jus gentium), the essential
common property characteristic of the sea like the voice of
human kind.“
S.C., „Le tiers de l‘espadon: Un mode féodal d‘appropriation des ressources
halieutiques“, Anthropologie Maritime II, 1985, 41-53.
S.C. „Le Baron et le poisson – Féodalité et Droit de la Mer en Europe occidentale“, 1987
(Maison des Sciences de l‘Homme, Droit et Cultures 13, 25- 49.
Do property rights and pricing of such
complex and dynamic trophic relationships
give sense?
81: Orca; 1 detritus; 2 phytoplankton; Link (1999)
The morphological and hydro- dynamical
fabric of Skylla‘s narrows –
a partly visible dimension (the dangerous
whirlpools of Charybdis)
The invisible ecological value:
Is such a marine ecological and meso pelagic
dynamism susceptible to be entitled and
priced ?
L. Guglielmo,
1995, 2001
Invisible creatures: Chauliodus stoani belongs to one
of the five main families of mesopelagic fishes
(chauliodontidae) and is the main food for the
cephalopods such as Loligo opalescens feeding the
very visible, but now at risk tuna species
The big marine
star: Luidia Ciliaris:
what kind of value?
Couple of Alicia
mirabilis: Not
only a pleasing
move
Valuing the cultural heritage
I
Aren´t
those
fisher
-men the
first users
of that
coastal
strip
?
II The passerella : The modern technical
outcome (since 1964) of a 3000 years long
enduring robust hunting practice
III The phoenician evidence for the symbolic appropriation of
the prey: a 3000 years old valuing symbolic sign
(marker) connecting life and death
The archeological value
Some of the many archeological evidences for
the presence of the phoenicians as a sea based
culture
S.C. „Halieutica phoenicia“, (34.1.), 1995, SAGE SSI pp.
107-173
The primeval ocean NOUN
in the ancient Egypt
„Roll on, thou deep on dark blue oceans – roll! Ten
thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. Man marks
the earth with ruin– his control stops with the shore.“
George Gordon Byron.
No caring without valuing , no protecting without a sea ethic
and ethics of the common, intended as enlarged bioethic,
grounded in social cooperation and extended recognition of
human‘s acting as pars naturae
Thank you for paying attention
to the importance of the
intrinsic value of this
wonderful Mediterranean
coastal area. For more
informations on its valuing
process, have a look to the
emerging marine holistic
reconnecting apparutus
(MAHOREA)
www.horcynusorca.it