From Illegal Bottom Trawling to an Underwater Museum: How an Italian Fisherman Uses Art to Protect Marine Ecosystems

Dive more than ten metres beneath the surface of Talamone Bay in southern Tuscany, Italy, and what greets you is not a coral reef — but a series of large marble sculptures standing silently on the seabed. Arranged along the nearshore waters, they form an invisible boundary, blocking certain vessels from venturing any further.

This is not an underwater museum in the conventional sense. These sculptures exist for a purpose tied to a fishing practice that has long plagued the Mediterranean coastline — bottom trawling.

Banned but Not Stopped: The Invisible Destruction Beneath the Waves

Bottom trawling involves dragging weighted nets across the seabed, allowing large quantities of fish to be harvested in a short time. But its highly non-selective nature means it routinely catches juvenile fish and non-target species, and causes severe damage to seafloor habitat.

In Italy, the law explicitly prohibits bottom trawling within three nautical miles of the coast — yet many small-scale inshore fishermen report that illegal trawlers still appear regularly, particularly at night or during periods of weak enforcement. The ecological toll of such activity does not show up in market prices, but it leaves lasting consequences within the ecosystem.

When heavy nets are dragged repeatedly across the seafloor, seagrass beds and benthic habitat are torn up and destroyed. Structures that once provided fish with shelter and breeding grounds gradually disappear. For small-scale fishermen who depend on inshore fisheries for their livelihoods, this destruction amounts to the premature depletion of "tomorrow's catch."

The Lungs of the Mediterranean: Posidonia oceanica Is Disappearing

Talamone Bay was once home to vast meadows of Neptune grass, Posidonia oceanica. This seagrass, endemic to the Mediterranean, is widely regarded as a cornerstone of the marine ecosystem.

Posidonia oceanica is not only a vital habitat for fish and invertebrates — its root systems stabilise the seabed, slow coastal erosion, and sequester carbon at a remarkable rate. Research suggests that mature seagrass meadows can match terrestrial forests in carbon storage efficiency per unit area.

Yet once a seagrass bed is damaged by bottom trawling, recovery is extremely slow — often taking decades, and in some cases considered impossible to fully achieve. For the fishing industry, this is not merely an environmental concern; it is a critical factor determining whether fish stocks can be sustained at all.

"If the Law Can't Stop Them Completely, We'll Find Another Way to Protect the Sea"

Paolo Fanciulli was born into a fishing family in Talamone. From the late 1980s onward, he began to notice that inshore catches were declining year after year — fish were getting smaller, and once-familiar species were disappearing. Illegal bottom trawling was the primary driver of these changes.

At first, he tried reporting violations to the authorities and even confronted illegal fishing vessels directly. But these approaches proved of limited effect and put both him and his family at risk. For Paolo, the question gradually sharpened into focus: if the law could not be fully enforced, was there another way to actually protect the sea?

The turning point came with an unlikely idea — if trawlers could enter because the seafloor was "flat enough," could changing the structure of the seafloor make trawling impossible?

When Art Becomes a Tool for Ocean Protection

In 2015, Paolo and his partners founded the non-profit organisation Casa dei Pesci (House of Fish), and began collaborating with artists to sink large marble sculptures into the nearshore waters. These works are not only artistically significant — their weight and arrangement create a physical barrier that makes bottom trawling effectively impossible in the area.

Over time, algae and marine organisms began colonising the surfaces of the sculptures, gradually producing an effect similar to that of an artificial reef and drawing fish back to the area. The structures also became a focal point for diving, linking the conservation initiative to ecotourism.

From Fishing to "Making People See What Is Happening to the Ocean"

If the damage caused by bottom trawling is a process that unfolds silently beneath the surface, then the underwater museum and its associated initiatives are an attempt to make that process visible. Beyond the underwater sculptures, Paolo has also developed fishing tourism, taking visitors out to sea to explain the differences between various fishing methods and to help people understand how destructive fishing practices affect both the ocean and the livelihoods of fishermen. On weekends, he runs a small restaurant selling the day's catch, and partners with local businesses that share a commitment to sustainability.

These efforts have transformed fishing from a purely food-producing industry into a space for public dialogue. Through direct experience, people come to understand that choosing what fish to eat — and knowing what method was used to catch it — is no longer an abstract environmental slogan, but something directly connected to the ecosystem and to the local economy.

When Governance Falls Short, Choices Still Remain

The experience of Talamone cannot solve all problems of illegal fishing, nor can it be easily replicated elsewhere. But it offers a direction worth considering: when formal systems struggle to achieve comprehensive enforcement, can local action, industry transformation, and consumer choices buy more breathing room for marine ecosystems?

For the general public, taking action does not necessarily mean stepping onto the front lines. It can begin with understanding the difference between fishing methods and choosing to support small-scale, low-impact fisheries. These seemingly small decisions may not immediately reshape the entire industry, but they can influence market trends — and give initiatives like the one in Talamone a chance to continue.

In a corner of the Mediterranean, the sculptures on the seafloor stand quietly on. They remind us that change in the ocean so often happens in places we cannot see — and that protecting it sometimes requires not just laws, but people willing to try a different way.

Further Reading

• Reference: The Italian fisher taking on industrial deep-sea trawlers
• Reference: Underwater museum: how 'Paolo the fisherman' made the Med's strangest sight
• Casa dei Pesci Official Website