Fishing Lagoons

The fishing lagoon is a brackish environment where the inflow of fresh and salt water is artificially regulated by sluice-gates (locks). Created by man, the fishing lagoon is an extensive fish farming, where the fish naturally grows in three, four years. The word "valle" - the Italian word for "fishing lagoon" - derives from the Latin vallum, that is the banks built to delimit these areas. To catch the fish for the fishing lagoons, it is necessary to wait for the period of the so-called "montata", when in summer the young fish moves from the sea to the lagoons, because it finds here more nourishment and warmer waters. Nets are placed in the passageways and enable to seize it: this system was already used by the Romans, who called the lagoons piscinae piscariae. The fishing lagoons are not only characterized by the beauty of the landscape, but also by typical buildings: the "cason de vale", with the big semi-circular chimney, the dwelling place of the owner and shelter of the guardians; the "casonetto", a premise used as a shelter for tools, and the "cavana", a roofed-over mooring place for boats. In the Delta there are 24 fishing lagoons covering 3,000 hectares in the Municipality of Rosolina, 3,500 in the Municipality of Porto Viro, and 1,650 in Porto Tolle.