Leonardo sulked in the bow of his father’s boat. The sky blazed blue. The water sparkled. The wind ruffled the golden grasses along the Italian coast’s pale cliffs. Many boys would be happy to be fishing with their father on such a beautiful day. But those boys were not Leo.
“If I miss school again,” he complained loudly over the rumble of the motor, “the teacher will fail me. If I fail, I won’t be ready for university when I turn eighteen.”
Leo was counting the days when he could leave this tiny fishing village and go to a big city like Rome or Milan.
“Don’t worry about that,” his father, Gino, roared back, his dark curls tossing in the wind. “You will be a fisherman like me, like your grandfather and great-grandfather and his great-grandfather.”
Leonardo doubted this very much. Each year, the catches dwindled. By the time he grew up, there wouldn’t be any fish left in the sea.
“Tell me if you see the fish!” Gino boomed, hand on the tiller.
Leo turned his face into the spray and squinted. In October, shoals of silver fish called mullet came to mate along the Italian coastline. Once, they swam in groups so thick they made the water look black in patches. Leo’s father said had seen sharks carving roads through the dark schools as they hunted. When the sharks lunged, the mullet fish leapt high into the air and fell like rain. Leo’s grandfather claimed that he never used to bother with nets on days like that. He just let the sharks fill his boat with raining fish.
Those were the good old days. Now, they would cast a mile-wide net and hope to catch something, anything. Fishermen were an endangered species along with the fish. Last year, his father almost had to sell his beloved boat to pay his debts. The best fish were gone from these waters. The fish that were left were hardly worth the time to catch them. They’d be out here all day. Leo would miss school again. His teacher would fail him. He’d never go to university. He’d be stuck here in an old boat on an empty ocean.
“Don’t be so grumpy!” his father called to him, reading Leo’s thoughts in his tight shoulders. “We can bomb the best fish up. That will be fun.”
Leo didn’t think so. Other boys loved to drop the homemade explosives into the water to kill the fish and collect them as they floated to the surface. But those boys were not Leo. He thought it was revolting . . . and not fair to the fish.
It was a long day. The next day was even harder. His teacher was mad at him. His father was mad at his small catch. His mother was mad at his father for planning to go out again after dark. If he was poaching fish beyond his licensed territory, he could be arrested and fined a huge sum. Or worse, he might be shot by an irate fisherman defending his area!
She refused to let Gino take Leo with him. Leo was relieved. If he stayed up all night, he’d fall asleep in class. Although, he could probably doze off tomorrow afternoon, anyway. Some guy from down the coast was coming to talk about fish. Boring!
But, Leo discovered that this man, Benicio, was not boring. Not at all. He was a small man with bright blue eyes. He was brown from the sun and beamed cheerfully.
“I began fishing when I was younger than you,” he told the class, “but only in the last ten years have I truly learned how to fish.”
Benicio came from a town many miles away. Leo had been there once on a class field trip to see the famous stone fort that had defended Puglia against the Turks. The white-washed houses of the town were built right to the edge of the peninsula’s high cliffs. You could jump off the roof and land in the water – though he doubted you’d survive.
Benicio had come to ask for their help.
“In Puglia, the other fishermen and I have created a marine reserve,” he explained. “Instead of using big nets with small holes, we use small nets with big holes. Your fathers fish every day. We only fish once a week. We make more money this way – and it’s better for the whole ocean.”
Leo sat up from his slouch and paid attention. If his father could pay his bills by fishing once a week, he could go to school more often!
Benicio spoke about how the marine reserve worked, how the fish schools were growing, how the white seabeam fish were getting as large as dinner plates, and how all the other creatures – dolphins, turtles, sharks, seals, whales – were doing better, too.
“And, because the mama fish have a safe place to raise their young, the great big schools of fish are spilling over the boundary of our little marine reserve into the nearby fishing grounds, helping other fishermen, too.”
Leo raised his hand.
“What do you need our help with?” he asked curiously.
Benicio grinned.
“Making a marine reserve here.”
If there was a marine reserve every thirty miles along the coast, he told the students, the whole ecosystem would explode with life. The fishing would be abundant not just for their fathers and them, but for their children and grandchildren.
Leo went home excited. His father scoffed at the idea. He had heard of Benicio, but he dismissed the man as a dreamer full of impossible ideas.
“It’s not impossible,” Leo argued. “They’re doing it.”
“Don’t try to teach me how to fish!” Gino harrumphed. “When you’ve been fishing as long as I have, then you can give me advice.”
“By that time,” Leo retorted, “there won’t be any fish left in the ocean.”
The next day, in the schoolyard, he sought out the sons and daughters of other fishermen. They needed a plan.
“If we want a marine reserve,” Leo said, “we have to make it happen. We have to tell everyone Benicio’s story. We have to make the grown-ups believe it is possible.”
“We should have a demonstration,” said one of the girls, “like they do for the political rallies.”
Lucia made banners with mullet and white seabeam fish on them.
Emilio came up with a chant: Our futures! Our fish!
Bianca suggested they walk out of class, like the climate strike youth were doing.
Salvatore added that they should march down to the docks.
When they did all of these, the other students joined them – and some of their parents, too! After all, Dante’s mother bought fish for her restaurant. Guiseppe’s father sold fish in his shop. Nicolas’ parents took tourists snorkeling. Daniella’s whole family had been trying to protect the ocean for years.
They marched to the docks the first time. The next time, they marched to the shops. After that, they went to the mayor’s house. By the time they went to the Fishing Authority’s office, half the town, young and old, was marching with them. Even Leo’s father.
It had taken a while. Gino demanded proof. His mother wanted to see the reports about the marine reserve. They went around and around about the idea. In the end, Leo won them over. His father and mother marched with them.
On the day the marine reserve was decreed, the whole town gave a special award to Leo. He had organized his classmates. He had listened closely to Benicio’s story. He had gotten the parents involved. He had dared to turn an impossible dream into a reality.
Leo hid his smile as he shook the mayor’s hand.
To think, he’d done it all because he didn’t want to fish!
____________________
Behind the Story
This story draws inspiration from a real-life example of a marine reserve called Torre Guaceto along the Italian coast. (You can learn more here.) The fishermen were struggling, overfishing the sea in order to make money. In their huge nets, they would catch everything from anchovies to dolphins. It was emptying the ocean. But then, a group of them came together and created a marine reserve. They fished only once a week, but they made huge revenues of up to $10,000 in a day. Not only was it good for the fishermen, it was good for the fish, too. The schools of fish rebounded in the marine reserve. There were so many fish, they spilled over the boundaries and increased the catches of nearby fishermen. Just like in the fictional story, the next step in restoring the sea ecosystems is to establish marine reserves up and down the whole coast.
This short story imagines what it might be like to try to start a marine reserve. As in the story, knowing the real-life examples can help us discover what will work. After learning from Benicio, Leo organizes his classmates and they organize their parents. Together, the intergenerational group pressures the authorities to support the idea. Change happens when people work together, speak up, and push for creative solutions to pressing problems.
Other Stories:
Rosalinda and the Cloud Catchers (Peru)
Faridah and the Tangled Knot (Yemen)
Dev and the Elephant War (India)
Nuru and the Little Park (Kenya)