Against new EU policies that want to ban trawling and cut fishing areas, marinas along all of Italy are taking to the streets. In fact, a series of initiatives are planned in ports to make their voices of dissent heard against what is called "senseless green extremism from Brussels". The appointment is for tomorrow saturday, May 6, at 10 a.m. in the main Italian ports, where fishing boats will sound their sirens in unison in protest. From Genoa Darsena (Calata Vignoso) in Liguria to Porto Santo Stefano in Tuscany to Gallipoli in Puglia are some of the most important ports involved in the protest. 

Other initiatives are also being planned in other ports of call along the boot, ahead of Europe Day on May 9, with the hashtag #SOS_EU_Fishing marking the protest. Emilia-Romagna's marinas, for example , have also lent their support to the call of the European Trawling Alliance to start the protest: tomorrow, fishermen will demonstrate with six garrisons in the ports of Bellaria Igea-Marina, Cattolica, Cesenatico, Goro, Porto Garibaldi and Rimini. The EU's policies, explains the Alliance of Emilia-Romagna Fisheries Cooperatives, "put the future of a vitally important sector at stake": hence "the strong unease" about the fishing bans and restrictions intended to be imposed on trawling. 

According to Massimo Bellavista, head of fishing and aquaculture in Emilia-Romagna for Legacoop Agroalimentare, "the new 30% cut in available fishing areas that the European Union would like to impose for us would mean a further cut in boats, at the next call for permanent closures, of more than 20%. I remember that it is these boats that employ the largest number of people in the territory, but also the same ones that provide the markets with the greatest variety of fish species, as opposed to other, more selective types of fishing, which therefore also feed our seafood tradition at the table".