La Almadraba

Throughout thousands of years, since Phoenician times, numerous civilizations have settled here, in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and in front of the Strait of Gibraltar, for a single reason: the annual migration of the great bluefin tuna to the Mediterranean.

Such was the importance of this fact, that entire cities dedicated exclusively to fishing and marketing were created, thus contributing to the development and expansion of the main cultures and empires of the ancient known world: The Mediterranean Sea, the "Mare Nostrum".

The Almadraba could be defined as the way in which man, since time immemorial, has managed to intercept the great Bluefin Tuna in its migratory passage through the Strait of Gibraltar.

To this day, the Almadraba continues to be a fixed and selective fishing art. An ingenuity of the human being that, year after year, tries to deceive the great ocean. But the truth is that after more than three thousand years of history, it continues to depend on its whims and vicissitudes to guarantee its success and continuity.

The fishing campaign of each season will always depend on factors that are difficult to control; from the migratory routes of the Bluefin Tuna and the presence of Orcas, to the lunar phases, the tides and currents of the Strait of Gibraltar or the temperature, salinity and clarity of its waters.

Source: http://www.naturetarifa.com/es/entorno-y-actividades/almadraba.html

Almadraba in the Strait of Gibraltar