Savas the fisherman (Insulae) – Leros, Gr

“Once you get older you may stop fishing, but you can never quit the sea”

Savas is a Greek Fisherman, born in Leros Island, and grew old all around the world’s seas. His father taught him how to catch fishes, he learn fast and started working at 14 years old, spending his entire life on boats. He also travelled the world (Italy, Spain, South America, Australia) as a marine soldier for Greek Army, just before getting back to his hometown ‑ Leros ‑ and working as a lonely fisherman in the Dodecanese Archipelago. He seems straight out of a novel by Ernest Hemingway.

Savas lives on a tiny fisher boat
Savas lives on his fish‑boat, and works using only traditional fish‑hook technique all over the year, even during cold winters ‑ looking for small, quite bays not yet exploited ‑ all around Leros’s neighboring islands.
Nowadays, he’s facing brutal competitions by big Fishing Companies, which are decreasing the fish stock numbers, and deteriorating the biodiversity of surrounding marine life.
For this reason, 2020 will be the last year he will spend on his home‑boat. His aim is to open a local traditional taverna on the harbour, with his youngest son.

Aegean Sea is almost dead!
Fish reserves in Greek seas are among the lowest in the Mediterranean, according to scientists, who attribute the dwindling numbers to overfishing, illegal practices such as dynamite fishing and gaps in marine’s legislation. In the last decades, there has been a dramatic decrease in reserves.