
Portopalo Capo Passero tuna fishery. Owned by the kinght Peter Bruno di Belmonte, the tuna Portopalo Capo Passero, extreme southeastern peak of Sicily at which the waters of the Ionian meet those of the Strait of Sicily, this tuna fishery was a thriving manufacturing plant in the twentieth century and now it is a beautiful monument of industrial architecture. The lodge and the factory for tuna processing, the great furnace, the stores, the church of the seventeenth century are visible. Here came the tuna that were slaughtered and processed, tuna fishing has accumulated over the centuries an important economic asset for the entire population of the place. When the tuna fishery was still working, already in early March began a maintenance work of great vessels of oak, nearly twenty feet long, which were kept in department stores during the winter and then pulled out for "impeciatura" of keels. The heavy nets were checked and repaired. The large anchors, placed conveniently on the bottom, formed a sort of passage required to conduct the tuna in the "death chamber" under the orders of the head rais. At the end of the slaughter fishermen returned to the shore to unload their catch: tuna, transported by trucks, were conducted in a large room to be gutted and cleaned. Then they were transported in the furnaces to boil, and finally conserved with olive oil.