Hope in Heritage - Mani Peninsula, Greece

While visiting the Mani Peninsula in June 2026, I wanted to find a small photo documentary project I could shoot. The area is known for its olives and its rugged coastline. Olive farming or fishing seemed an obvious subject thought with olives being a winter fruit, in the summer there is little to photograph.

So fishing it was, in the minds of foreigners like me, Greece, fishing and seafood are inextricably linked and no where is the more true than on the Mani Peninsula. Its rugged western flank, where the Taygetos Mountains rise dramatically from the Messinian Gulf, is dotted with fishing villages. So I set about doing some research.

I soon began to discover that this relationship was perhaps not what it once was. The Greek commercial fishing fleet, made up almost entirely of small wooden vessels owned and operated by local fisherman, is under threat. Over the last 30 years the total catch landed by Greek fishing has reduced by 60%. This and EU and Greek Government policy has seen the total fleet reduce by about 45% over a similar period. Resulting in many commercial fishermen to surrender their licences and in some cases their boats, which were then destroyed in wrecking yards.

Realising the destruction their policies were wreaking on Greece’s sea-faring heritage and the generational shift taking place, the Greek Government had decided to allow fisherman to use their vessels for tourism to supplement the income they derive from their catch.

One man taking advantage of this is Capitan Dimitris, a fisherman since his teens he is dedicated to keeping the areas seafaring heritage alive. I was fortunate enough to spend the morning with him and his father as they collected and reset their nets. The policy allows Dimitris to take advantage of an alternate revenue stream to help supplement the income he derives from fishing, olive growing and various other odd jobs which is just as well because the challenges of a life fishing were none more evident than the morning I spent with him with little more than a handful of worthless Lion Fish to show.

Big thanks to Dimitris Kitriniaris of Kardamili Fishing Trips for being so generous with his time and knowledge.