Luka Dakskobler

Stories: THE LONG NIGHTS ON THE MARMARA SEA

Where the sea is literally in the heart of a metropolis, fishing is the beat. It provides income even to the smallest of boats, the poorest of fishermen trying to make a living off the Marmara sea or the Bosphorus strait. It is these small boats that are left behind when the big ones follow the fish up the Mediterranean. Adem, Cevat and Cinar are a crew of a small five meter boat, rocking heavily on the restless sea of Marmara, searching for fish, dropping the net, guiding the fish in and pulling the net out. They usually don’t do it during the day. It’s too hot for them and the fish. So they do it at night. Gathering at four o’clock p.m. on a boat harboured in the Kumkapi district of Istanbul, they prepare their nets and water supplies, eat a meal and start their day that lasts up until seven a. m. on the next day. They take their catch to the distribution market to sell the fish. But they have to compete with what the big boats brought back from further north. The pay is small, so their rest is short. A day later, they're back on the Marmara sea at night. 

  • The boats are small and cramped and look messy although everything has its place. Nevertheless, before they leave, they clean the deck where they will spend the entire night.
  • Adem's boat is one of a relatively small number of small boats that stay on the Marmara sea, after the fish move to a colder climate up the Mediterranean and the big boats follow them.
  • Cevat Sariaydin makes coffee in the cabin of a small boat, rocking heavily on the Marmara sea, heading out to fish on 21st June 2010.
  • Cevat Sariaydin hands a cup of coffee to Adem Golak, who is steering the boat on the tiny rooftop cabin, as they head out to fish on the Marmara sea on 21st June 2010. Coffee is the basic tool for staying awake and alert all throughout the night, when they fish because it is cool enough for the fishermen and the fish.
  • Cinar observes the sea as they circle the schools of fish in the Marmara Sea on June 21, 2010.
  • Cevat Sariaydin and Cinar Gulle sort the fish as they pull the net from the Marmara sea off the coast of Istanbul on 21st June 2010. Getting a fish out of the net and throwing it into the right casket is such a routine that they do not need to watch what they're doing. They have a failproof system and they know it by heart.
  • First catch of the day for Adem, Cevat and Cinar on the Marmara sea on 21st June 2010. Any large number of fish caught is a gift, since the summer season doesn't even allow for any abundant catches.
  • Waiting for the night to fall completely and the fish to come in, Cevat, Adem and Cinar, discuss the tactics. A lot of work over night is coordinated with their friend's boat that only has two fishermen on board.
  • When the night falls, the small boat is a tiny light on a moonlit sea scattered with bright lights of tens of cargo ships.
  • Adem, Cevat and Cinar pull the net from the Marmara sea off the coast of Istanbul on 22nd June 2010. They fish all throughout the night, because the air and sea are cooler and the fish are more likely to be in low depths.
  • Fishing just accross from the expensive Sheraton hotel, Adem, Cevat and Cinar do not earn much, especially in the summer non-fishing season.
  • Adem and Cevat take an ice block from the freezer to put it into the barrel where all the caught fish are stored until morning.
  • The fishermen pull the net from the Marmara sea off the coast of Istanbul on 22nd June 2010. At night, the boat lights up. Small car light bulbs are used, because they emit a lot of light and do not take much space. A floating buoy with a light beakon is fastened to the end of the net so that they can see it in the dark. And the strong reflector lights directed into the surface of the water help guide the fish in.
  • A fisherman jumps onto a friend's boat to tie them together as they stop to help each other with sorting the fish on the Marmara sea off the coast of Istanbul on 22nd June 2010.
  • At the docks in Kumkapi, fishermen put the fish into wooden caskets that they carry to the distribution bazaar to sell them on the morning of 22nd June 2010, after they'had been fishing for the entire night.
  • At six or seven in the morning, both boats return to the dock in Kumkapi district of Istanbul, just next to the distribution bazaar. Awaited by seagulls and an occasional cat. The bazaar is full by then.
  • At a distribution bazaar in Kumkapi clients inspect Adem's and his team's catch after a night of fishing on the Marmara sea off the coast of Istanbul on 22nd June 2010.  But Adem's sardines and sand smelt must compete with a full hall of large fish from all over the Mediterranean, including large swordfish etc.
  • The small fish, mostly sardines, are a popular summer cousine in Istanbul, but they are scarce in the Marmara sea in June. A lot of the fish brought to the distribution market are sold to sellers on the fish bazaar in Kumkapi or Karakoy.
  • Adem humbly waits as the grocer puts down a price for their six caskets of fish. The ammount of money the three fishermen will have to split among themselves.
  • By dawn, the distribution bazaar in the fishing port of Kumkapi is full of fishermen, buyers, restaurant owners, shop owners, buying the fish for their business. Thousands of tourists in Istanbul will eat thousands of fish during the day.
  • After a long night of fishing, Adem and his friend in a cowboy hat sit in the other boat's cabin, resting, eating breakfast, chatting before going home to sleep for a day and return the next day.
  • A selection of fish rests on a stand in the Karakoy fish market, the popular fish market in the heart of Istanbul, on 24th June 2010. Most of the small fish here come from local fishermen like Adem, Cevat and Cinar, fishing long nights on the Marmara sea.
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