It is becoming a tradition. Once a year, we invite neighbours, friends and family to a garden party to celebrate good relations and the protection of the sea, marine cultures and nature around us. After a year's break forced by the pandemic, we were all so happy to pick up again where we left it in 2019. On Saturday 28 August, we seized the opportunity to get together again or afresh. And come they did. Some eighty guests from the youngest of just over a year to the oldest, past eighty, they accepted the invitation and joined the get together.
Each time, we have a theme that touches on the ocean and climate action, but the central part is nurturing good relations, recharge the batteries and having a good time together. For the hosts, it's also a superb opportunity to put the workshop and barn in order. Sometimes it needs a little external pressure to fight the entropy growing over the year, hahaha.
This time, we also had to take some special health precaution for all participants. A neighbour, who is a medical doctor, took it upon herself to check that all guests had either a green pass of being vaccinated or recovered from covid or could show a recent negative test. That was a relief for everybody. Being mostly outside did the rest.
It was supposed to be hot and dry - or so the medium-term weather forecast had said - but the closer to the date, the greater the likelihood of at least some intermittent rains. So, we took some precautions with a large tent and moved the grill inside the barn for protection.
In the end, we were quite lucky and the serious rains stopped before lunch time and resumed only the day after.
So, nothing could dampen the good atmosphere along the buffet of drinks, cakes, fruit salats and more and the conversations at the tables underscored by background music from all over the world.
Once the first round of appetite had been satisfied, Cornelia as hostess took the microphone to welcome all guests again and speak to the importance of engaging for marine and nature protection so that such outdoor activities could still be enjoyed by future generations. She also projected the short video on the Small-Scale Fisheries Academy in Senegal and explained pictures about her recent visit to meet Paolo, the fisherman, in Tuscany, Italy, whose fight against illegal bottom trawling close to the shore is starting to show results thanks to lowering marble sculptures onto the seafloor as protection. While the conditions may look very different in Senegal and Italy or other places where small-scale fishers are battling for the future of marine resources and their livelihoods, we see many commonalities. The major threats are each time destructive, often illegal, industrial fishing operations, which may even be subsidised with public funds. It's high time to stop these harmful subsidies and stop highly destructive bottom trawling and long distance fleets emitting copious quantities of CO2 while catching less fish every year.
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How many cakes, fruit plates, salads, bread and meat do you need for a large group of people? Not easy to say in advance, but there was more than enough for everyone and left overs to share so that nothing was wasted. With no one-way disposables except for some of the wrappings of ingredients, we managed to keep non-compostables low to stay true to our nature protection principles.
A big thank you to all who came to make the garden party such a wonderful experience again with their own stories, their help and their donations to Mundus maris activities and to the Casa dei Pesci of Paolo il pescatore.
Between cash donations and transfers to the Mundus maris bank account we reached about €1,500. We are very grateful for this welcome support for the field work.
We already look forward to next year's garden party.
Text by Cornelia E Nauen, photos by Paolo Bottoni.