NOVELLAME

Every spring, like clockwork, new fish in the millions are born in the fertile waters off Baia Ranella here in our bay. And just like clockwork, the dispute between the fishermen of Sciacca and the men in the boats from Palermo heats up.
Sciacca fishermen claim this abundance is their resource to do as they want, their patrimony. They self-regulate pretty well so that there are enough fish to go around to all and some more to mature for the future. But it was not always like this, for at one time environmentalists had to convince the fishermen that these millions of babies that they see could have a finite end if they were not managed correctly. So our guys here now treat this yearly boon with some respect.
But as waters get fished out around Palermo, the fishing fleet there heads south and ends up here. And our fishermen now have to convince government officials of what they have just recently been convinced of, that this bounty should not be fished to the limit. There are demands for laws, then stop orders and injunctions, and new court orders every year. Sometimes they are obeyed, sometimes not, and this year there seems to be a hold on the judicial proceedings. Yesterday I watched the boats steam in and there were 22 of them in our very small bay. They cut across each others’ bow and yelled loudly at each other and swung their nets menacingly and generally were a pain in the butt.
When we drove into Paolo’s house later that day, we saw him out on the terrace looking intently through his high powered binoculars that he uses to identify who is in which boat. He was outraged that he could not identify most of the boats except to be sure that they were not local. And of course it was all the fault of the “Palermitani”, the people from Palermo. I read in the paper that some environmentalists wanted restaurants to boycott the new fish from their menus instead of featuring them as a specialty this time of year (they are gross, a gelatinous mess with big black eyes, usually eaten raw!). That may happen in Sciacca, but probably not in Palermo. Journalists reported that while the case is being sorted out in courts, the restaurants that the judges adjourn to for their pranzo feature the novellame prominently on the menu. Damn those Palermitani!