Tuna emigrates from colder seas to the warmer waters. On this voyage to the South it passes through Gibraltar Straight from the beginning of April. This time is when its level of fat is at its highest point and therefore this is the time it’s most appreciated. Tuna has been fished in our Spanish and Catalan coast since pre-roman times

 

An Almadraba is the traditional fishing method where the tuna is caught and pulled onto the fishing boat. And then it’s killed to be sold in the fish market.  This traditional method has survived from ancient times to nowadays but it’s coming to point it will disappear as modern ways of fishing are more aggressive and unsustainable. Here is an interesting video we can watch about the Almadraba in Cadiz in the South of Spain. 

An Almadraba  is the same as a tunara as you call it in Croatia.

 

 

 

Studies have shown tuna species have halved their population since 1975. The EEC has stablished fishing quotas to protect tuna species. So every year Spanish Mediterranean coast area can fish about 16 tones of tuna.  Some of it is caught and kept alive to be farmed. 

In Catalonia, the last Almadraba was put up in 1923 in Roses, but they had been very popular in XVI century. We have got restrictions onto what size of tuna can be caught. The minimal weigh should be 30kg or measure 115cm. The most valued tuna is the red tuna. Nowadays, sonars and radars are used to search tuna passageways and  then nets are used to catch them.

 

You can read more about the red tuna of Almadraba in Cadiz here. Cadiz in South Spain is still using this traditional fishing.