{"id":214,"date":"2025-07-05T16:14:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T13:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/?p=214"},"modified":"2025-08-11T19:03:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T16:03:02","slug":"pushed-to-the-brink-family-of-parian-fishermen-anticipates-extinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/2025\/07\/05\/pushed-to-the-brink-family-of-parian-fishermen-anticipates-extinction\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushed to the Brink: Family of Parian Fishermen Anticipates Extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Megan Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Dimitris and Eleni’s boat, the “Regina,” now used to host fishing charters for tourists around Paros.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last Thursday, Dimitris Skiadis and his sister Eleni got lucky. They began the process of retrieving their nets at around 8:20pm, with Dimitris monitoring the reel and Eleni standing close by, ready to untangle each fish from the intricate snare of synthetic fibers. It was earlier than usual, so they weren\u2019t expecting to catch much.<\/span><\/p>\n

After only five minutes, the fish started piling up. Eleni said this was a good sign. Illuminated by the glow of the setting sun, her fingers worked at an astonishing pace, expertly removing fish after fish as 600 meters of yellow threads gradually accumulated at her side. A few more minutes passed, and she quickly spotted gaping holes in the netting, along with a few fish that had small bites taken out of their flesh. She then understood the cause of their good fortune.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dolphins, which are spotted <\/span>frequently<\/span><\/a> in the crystal clear waters of the Cyclades and often cause more <\/span>harm<\/span><\/a> for fishermen than good by damaging equipment and raiding nets, had chased a school of fish into the right place at the right time. However, most days, the fish are a lot harder to come by.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dimitris and Eleni last Thursday, working together to bring up their nets.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born and raised in <\/span>Paros<\/span><\/a>, Dimitris and Eleni have witnessed the decimation of the island\u2019s fishing community firsthand. Overfishing, pollution, the arrival of invasive species like the poisonous <\/span>lionfish<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>rabbitfish<\/span><\/a>, and the implementation of counterproductive policies by the European Union (EU) have played a direct role in the destruction of traditional modes of fishing across Greece. To avoid falling victim to this, their family was forced to turn to <\/span>fishing tourism<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dimitris and Eleni were first taught to fish by their father, Adonis, at a time when the commercial fishing industry flourished and served as a <\/span>crucial component<\/span><\/a> of the Parian economy. They would spend days on the water, working together to make a living. Even now, at age 79, Adonis supports his children behind the scenes, mending damaged nets, attaching lures to longlines, and even offering assistance on the boat when Eleni is unavailable.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A collection of Skiadis family photographs of moments on the boat from over the years. | Courtesy of Eleni Skiadis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most significant pieces of legislation to impact families like theirs were a series of EU directives passed between 2013 and 2014, which established the Common Fisheries Policy (<\/span>CFP<\/span><\/a>) and European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (<\/span>EMFF<\/span><\/a>). Together, the CFP and EMFF aimed to limit the impact of overfishing by offering financial incentives to Greek fishermen in exchange for <\/span>destroying<\/span><\/a> their boats and revoking their professional licenses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dimitris and Eleni\u2019s boat, the <\/span>Regina<\/span><\/i>, was built by Dimitris when he was 14. He says he knows \u201cwhere every single nail and every single piece of wood is placed,\u201d and \u201cno amount of money\u201d would ever convince him to give it away. Since the boat is \u201cvery dear to his heart,\u201d and keeping it in his possession was his top priority, giving it a few renovations and offering fishing charters for two months of the year was the clear choice for their family.<\/span><\/p>\n

The current mayor of Paros, Kostas Bizas, believes the ultimate goal of the EU is to \u201cgradually stop fishing\u201d all together and turn to rely entirely on fish farming. He also acknowledged that these decisions, which are supposedly made \u201cin the name of protecting the environment,\u201d are often a result of the \u201cbig interests involved in European policies,\u201d including mass fishing corporations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole situation right now, it\u2019s all humans\u2019 fault,\u201d Dimitris said. \u201cThis is all made by human mistakes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Megan Cameron Last Thursday, Dimitris Skiadis and his sister Eleni got lucky. They began the process of retrieving their nets at around 8:20pm, with Dimitris monitoring the reel and Eleni standing close by, ready to untangle each fish from the intricate snare of synthetic fibers. It was earlier than usual, so they weren\u2019t expecting … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Pushed to the Brink: Family of Parian Fishermen Anticipates Extinction”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5318,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5318"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn350-su25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}