With Mickaël Catalano, fresh fish every day on the port

Mickaël Catalano doit entretenir nasses et filets.

Mickaël Catalano et son “Cesare II”.

Céleste and Mickaël offer freshly caught fish.

A converted sea fisherman, the skipper of the “Cesare II” talks about his job.

In the port of Frontignan, three skippers offer their catch directly from the boat to the consumer. After the Poulp’Or II, Le Patolisa, Mickaël Catalano has just opened his own stall last June, Le Cesare II.

Each outing brings its share of joy or frustration

After a first career, he retrained as a fisherman at sea and on the pond in 2018. "At the Lycée de la Mer, I passed my CACPP diploma, certificate of ability to command small-scale fishing. Then I worked on the pond, my fellow fishermen allowed me to shoot at the post to gain the necessary experience. I bought a first boat with SME, maritime operating license and I started on the pond: sea bass, sea bream, eels… In Frontignan, we fish on the north side or the south side (from the Rhône canal to Sète) in function of the mistral. The wind is the fisherman's delight, the water becomes cloudy, stirs up nutrients and the fish moves to catch it and gets caught in the nets. On the sea side, for 4 years, I served as Mickael Galtier's sailor on the Poulp'or. He taught me everything and I thank him for that.

5 years later, in 2023, Mickael bought the boat Le Cesare II and went solo. Octopus caught in a trap or pot, sea bream, red mullet, mackerel, red bream in a net, eels in a capéchade in the pond, each outing brings its share of joy or frustration. During the summer, we find Céleste, his second daughter, at the stall for direct sales: "It's more interesting to meet buyers directly. We can advise them on how to enhance the value of our fresh fish. Sole, for example, must wait 12 hours before being put in the pan. Otherwise, it will be too fresh and will arch during cooking! But the time constraint is important, I go out at 4:30 a.m. and I try to be back by 9 a.m. for the first customers. And at noon, I will sell what I have left at the auction in Sète."

The atmosphere is good between fishermen, they are happy when everyone catches their catch and work in good collaboration. "Mutual assistance is mandatory to work well. We can always need each other. The accounting concept is complicated because there is no fixed income. The fish can be absent without being able to explain it and we are never safe from a mechanical problem. You think it is a given but every day you question yourself". Mickaël, like the other fishermen, is careful to preserve the resource, noting despite everything that the big pieces are becoming rarer. “We can assume a lack of food, perhaps with the pollution phenomenon, the fish had to adapt”.

Satisfied with his new job, he is happy to offer his freshly caught fish to the Frontignan and summer clientele who enjoy it.

Midi Libre correspondent: 06 78 75 48 78

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