by At 5:30 a.m., Mattei and his crew set off in their small fishing boat from the coast of Constanța, Romania, and head into the Black Sea. A dozen men jump right into action, getting their nets ready. The sea, usually calm at this hour, stirs as the fishermen cast their nets with near-perfect precision.
Yet, this season, they seem to be let down by the sea. “It’s not a good catch; the fish are too small,” Captain Mattei remarks, looking over the haul with a disappointed grimace. “They didn’t have time to grow properly,” he adds, shaking his head.
Mattei, 42, is a third-generation fisherman. “My father fishes in the pond; I fish in the sea,” he says with a smile, his eyes fixed on the horizon. Like many fishermen in the region, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has disrupted Mattei’s daily life, with the conflict sending waves through the Black Sea.
For local fishermen like Mattei, the war extends beyond the battlefield. It puts relentless pressure on the already fragile marine resources of the Black Sea. “Even though we’ve seen some species returning since the war began, the overall situation is still dire,” Mattei says. “Pollution is a huge problem.”
Indeed, the fragile ecosystems of the Black Sea are taking the brunt of the protracted war. Its damages extend far beyond the environmental impact, hitting local populations and maritime security equally hard. The main culprit is clear: Russia’s destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam.