The Catalan Fishermen’s Traditional Knowledge of Climate and the Weather: a Distinctive Way of Relating to Nature

Abstract

Research among fishermen on the coast of Catalonia, Spain,shows that, despite its importance in the past, traditionalknowledge about climate, the weather and the sea is nolonger being passed on to the next generation. The centralargument of this paper is that this is due not only totechnological developments, but also because thisinformation is actually being lost. Constant attention to thenatural world and to changing weather conditions was acharacteristic of traditional fishing communities, but astraditional fishing is disappearing because of environmentaldamage, this aspect of our intangible heritage is disappearingtoo. However, ethnographic research shows that there arestill groups of fishermen who are concerned with the survivalof their profession and with the preservation of traditionalknowledge about climate and the environment. The mainpart of this paper consists of a brief compilation ofinformation about climate lore, collected from middle-agedfishermen at the port of Arenys, near Barcelona, in Spain. The preservation of this form of intangible heritage has alsobecome a way of preserving a particular attitude towardsnature that may help us to address some of theenvironmental challenges that mankind is now facing.