Hook, line and clinker: fisherman uses concrete statues to save the sea bed

An Italian fisherman’s conservation campaign has seen him introduce an imaginative weapon in his battle with commercial trawlers – sculpture.

Paolo Fanciulli has scattered the sea bed in his home port of Maremma with statues.

They snag the trawlers’ nets and so protect the natural habitat of the Tuscany coast’s flora and fauna.

Paulo said: “The sea is my life and I felt very emotional when I had that idea of putting art into the sea, because if I had told myself ‘I’d better carry on putting concrete blocks in the sea’, maybe you would not even be here now; nobody would have listened to me.”

The fisherman has been trying to persuade the authorities to listen to him for forty years and believes more could be done to prevent large commercial vessels from operating illegally in Italy’s waters.

He said: “I have been saying this for years and nothing ever changes. In such protected marine reserves as Giannutri, Montecristo, Isola d’Elba, Capraia, Pianosa, overnight some boats switch their satellite system off and, through the use of tons of chain, they destroy the seabed completely. It is about time politicians take the field.”

Paolo Fanciulli has placed 40 statues in the sea, working with international artists and entrepreneurs to source sculptures. His ambition is to reach a hundred concrete statues on the sea bed, protecting nature while creating a new attraction for divers and visitors to the area.