On an overcast morning, several kilometres off the east coast of Sardinia, four men jump into a net where 49 giant Atlantic bluefin tuna are fighting for their lives.
For more than 30 minutes, the men struggle in a frenzy of nets, tails, fins and sleek silvery bodies before finally securing a metal hook through the gills of the nearest fish. From one of the seven wooden boats that frame this càmira dâ morti (“chamber of death”), Luigi Biggio yells for his men to pull.
As 28 men look on, a majestic creature about three metres long, weighing 120kg is raised out of the water with a pulley. On the biggest boat, one man swiftly cuts its jugular and the vessel fills with blood.
Biggio, 57, runs a , the Italian version of an ancient Mediterranean fishing custom, which traps and (or “killing”). Biggio comes from a long line of from the Arabic for chief), almost sacred leaders of the hunt – a mantle passed down from father to son in designated families.
