Traditional fishing in Menorca, the "puu"

In late February, walking in Cala Blanca, a beautiful cove located in the bay of Ciutadella de Menorca, I had occasion to observe the implementation of a traditional fishing method, to our misfortune, is falling into oblivion.

Fishing for "puu" is not really such a fishery, but could be defined as the "preparation" or "step" of a fishing post, since in this case what we get is the bait.

The laymen call "bugs" or perhaps "sea lice" some animals that biologists known as isopods and amphipods idoteidos gammarids.

These beings live among coastal areas where they accumulate dead algae and seagrass leaves, and turn out to be an excellent bait to fish for bream, oblate, sunfish ("cànteres") and other fish in Menorca are usually fish from shore cane and hand.

Going back to my winter walk, I describe the scene I witnessed, I have to admit that most curious of the "label" allowed:

Right in February, a man gets a wader and begins to walk, with waist-deep water, every few feet to pick up a handful of dead algae of the fund carefully inspected. When deciding on which area of ​​the beach can have better result, returns to earth, where it picks nailed metal stakes, following the shore line, where there are few feet deep.

Then tie a rope (I will not say out because our friend is not shipped) from stake to stake, and it crashes every two or three meters, which seems to me a mop or an old wig, so that is submerged , barely touching the bottom.

When returns are not explained to me that mops or wigs but "baveróns", made with hemp fiber, which impregnated with fish oil to attract the "puu". The rig comprises "baverons" "corda" "Estaques" and "bous" which are one of these "baverons" but do not cling to the "corda" described, but which are placed one at a with his own rope.

Every twenty minutes the fisherman in "puu" reviews their gear, taking care of the sea with the "baverons" and shaking them to drop the "puu" in a basket of esparto. Small "gambons", "arrierets" and "aces" (name for each of the different species of animals that form the "puu"), they accumulate in the basket along aa abundant pieces of algae, which then must be selected and away, to leave the "puu" free of these particles.

Pepe tells me Melia, the fisherman in "puu" appearing in the photos, which agunta live bait in the refrigerator if stored in the same basket of Esperanto, nearly a week, and the smallest of such animals ( the "gambons") are used to engorge fishing zone, throwing handfuls who come to fish, not resitirán the temptation of one or two "arrierets" or "aces" pinned alive on the hook. Also that the measure of "puu" used to be used when this bait was purchased from the few who were involved "professionally" to its collection was the "bushel" which had the approximate capacity of a pint. For a day of fishing were needed two "almuds".

I think the fishing or harvesting of "puu", for which you need a special permit from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Balearic Islands, is a beloved tradition that should not be forgotten.