From Brígida Baptista’s family dinner table to her work as an archaeologist and doctoral student, narratives about tuna and fishing have always been present. This personal motivation has led her academic career back to its point of origin: a fishing village in the Algarve. Brígida has been working at CHAM since 2021 and is currently a member of its Environment, Interactions and Globalisation Research Group, as well as a researcher on the ERC Synergy Grant 4-OCEANS. Her PhD thesis, supervised by Associate Professor Cristina Brito, is a historical narrative that combines early modern history with marine environmental history.
Since 2014, Brígida has been retracing the history of tuna fishing in Santa Luzia, initially through oral history and more recently through historical research. The beach of Barril and its former tuna trap — where her family lived and fished for almost a century — was her original object of study. From it, she developed the Barril Tuna Route in 2014 and, more recently, the Tuna Odyssey®. Collecting and preserving these narratives is crucial to understanding the human side of fishing — its social, cultural and economic dimensions — as well as the environmental side: the tuna as a natural resource, its ecology, and the impacts of continued extraction.
By revealing this local history at national and international levels, the project contributes to the creation of new knowledge and the recovery of invisible memories kept within the community. It has helped shift perceptions among local government and heritage management bodies, and has brought the community together to share knowledge and find new ways to protect and enhance both tangible and intangible heritage.
A range of public activities has been developed, bringing together different sectors and generations. This creation of a shared sense of belonging and identity has been particularly meaningful. Santa Luzia, widely known as the “Octopus Capital” due to its national importance in octopus fishing, has once again revisited its tuna-fishing history — a history in which former fishermen, both living and remembered, remain central.
The Barril tuna trap operated from at least 1841 until 1966. The new findings from the 16th to 18th centuries along the Algarve coast presented in this doctoral research add valuable content for interpretive signage, publications, guided walks, informal conversations, and scientific communication. Through this project, it has become clear that this region offers much more than “sun and beach.” It is fundamentally a place of lived experiences and memories which, despite mass tourism, remain grounded in a long-standing relationship between people and the tuna that pass along the coast each year.
Brígida’s work in this community has been widely recognised. In 2024, she received the Santa Luzia Parish Council’s Medal of Merit (Silver Degree), and the Lais de Guia Association received the Municipal Medal of Merit (Silver Degree) from Tavira Town Council. She was also named an Honorary Member of the Tuna Confraternity. In terms of media visibility, the project has been featured in regional newspapers — Barlavento, Correio do Sul, Algarve Informativo, Postal do Algarve — as well as on local radio stations Rádio Gilão and Horizonte, and on the social media of Santa Luzia Parish Council and Tavira Town Hall. The team has been invited to integrate the Bluefin Tuna Route into Portugal’s Industrial Tourism Network — a process that is currently underway.
Brígida intends to continue her research in the field, further integrating the scientific components of environmental history, material and intangible cultural heritage, and science communication. This topic has emerged organically throughout her personal and professional life. It is a story of people and animals — of tuna and those who interact(ed) with them. It continues to grow from tales heard, forgotten, and remembered in family gatherings. She moves between spaces — family, local community, academic circles — where each person contributes their own experience, which together form a coherent narrative.
By sharing this local history nationally and internationally, the project contributes to the creation of knowledge, the recovery of memories, and the fostering of a sense of kinship. Knowing and belonging are the most powerful drivers of change and action — in this case, the safeguarding of a shared heritage embedded in natural ecosystems and animals, built heritage, and the intangible traditions of living by and from the sea.
The project has contributed to a change in the perception of local government and heritage management bodies, but also of the community itself, which has come together to share knowledge and build new ways of protecting and enhancing the tangible and intangible heritage.
Brígida Baptista