May 8, 2014 WALKS IN HISTORY: The Thunnus thynnus and the almadrabas Story by José Antonio de Pilares / Graphic by Grolltech, Wikipedia
“¿Por qué aún no se ha hecho un monumento al que juntó el atún con la cebolla?” (“Why hasn’t a monument already been raised to whoever put together tunas and onions?”) -José Guerrero Roldán “el Yuyu”, satiric poet and journalist.
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he Thunnus thynnus is a magnificent animal; better known as the Bluefin Tuna in English, and Atún Rojo in Spanish. These fish can grow to weigh almost a thousand pounds, they can travel underwater at about 40 miles per hour and can dive a kilometer in search of prey. And most importantly to us, they make a great meal, having become part of the cuisine and culture of the Gulf of Cádiz since before Roman times. There are cave paintings in the cliffs near to Tarifa where Stone Age humans depicted themselves hunting down the tuna fish in the surf… and collaborating with orcas to do so. Orcas can still be seen today on occasions hunting the tuna at that beach, pushing them out into the sand. The old silver coins made in Phoenician Cádiz, or Gadir, used two bluefins to identify their mint more than 2000 years ago. Julius Caesar’s campaign against Pompey’s supporters in Hispania could have come to a standstill for lack of supplies had it not been for the great schools of tuna that arrived to Gadir just in time to feed his hungry legions. In the Middle Ages –under Muslim rule- the almadrabas (such as those of Rota, Chipiona or Zahara de los Atunes) were built to aid with the hunting. The very word “almadraba” is Arabic and means in “fighting/killing place”. I’m not saying “fishing” but rather “hunting” because “fishing a tuna” can take hours and except for sport fishermen no one does it. Tunas are hunted down with nets and underwater stone walls, organized as a maze, until they are driven into a central pool called “copo”. There the fishermen raise the nets as much as they can out of the water with the fish inside them and
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then use pike poles to drag the fish out of the water. All done by hand, all done in a manner that could be recognized by a 2000 year old fisherman. After the Muslims were expelled from the coast of Cádiz, circa 1250 BE, the control and exploitation of the almadrabas they had left behind was handed over to the Duke of Medina-Sidonia; the “other” king of Andalucía as many referred to him because of his possessions and power. The Dukedom made a fortune hunting, salting, smoking and exporting the tuna for the next 500 years. It was said in the 1600’s in Seville that whenever people went south to Sanlúcar de Barrameda (on the mouth of the Guadalquivir and the “capital” of the Dukedom) they sailed “to get tuna, and to see the Duke”. Rota’s almadraba was just one of a string of establishments that ranged from Isla Cristina (near to Portugal) to the Straits of Gibraltar. After Medina-Sidonia sold the almadrabas in the early 19th century they became private exploitations, some with better luck, some with worse. Rota’s was not very lucky. The factory near the almadraba, where the tuna was carved (“el ronqueo” in Spanish), salted (turned into “mojama”, or “jamón de atún” as some say) or canned was lost along with all the warehouses in the 1920’s. It was an economic disaster and the company could not rebuild it; ever since the grounds have been used as a concentration camp, a resettlement for displaced farmers… and today it is the Hotel Playa de la Luz. The rocks remain. Every high tide they hide under the water only to reappear six hours later, a haven for maritime wildlife where only a few licensed fishermen can work.
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However, all is not lost as a quick trip to Barbate, Conil de la Frontera or Zahara de los Atunes will demonstrate. The traditional fishing still is carried out every summer as the tuna migrate to the Mediterranean from the north Atlantic; only the large specimens are chosen while the younger ones are handpicked and allowed to escape the almadraba. As an added plus, this method of capture does not stress the animals as much as other forms, meaning that at the time of death their muscles remain fresh and tender; something that helps with the ronqueo, the processing and the cooking. Even Japanese traders come to buy tuna here for top-class sushi, paying thousands of euros for some fish. So where can you enjoy this? Well, the almadrabas’ nets are being lowered into the sea as I type, and Barbate will soon be hosting its VII Semana Gastronómica. Barbate is only about 70 kilometers south of Rota, and its Culinary Week is dedicated to all things tuna. It starts the 21st of May; you can find out more online in larutadelatun.com. For people accustomed to eating tuna sorely out of a can and in a sandwich or a salad, seeing the fish in a market or a steak of it on a plate can be intimidating. But fear not, instead be ready to try eating this great fish made in any of the local recipes: “atún encebollado”, “atún con tomate”, “mojama”, or if feeling experimental you can also try modern recipes such as: “hagashi”, “tacos de atún con salmorejo”… I even hear there is a tuna-filled chocolate cake. I assure you, the next time you open a can of tuna after having eaten your way through a real tuna steak, when you look at the can you will think “Really? Is this it?”.
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