Fishing Tourism with Cooperativa San Marco: a morning in the lagoon with Burano’s fishermen
The northern lagoon seen from a working fishing boat, with the people who have lived it every day since 1896.
Burano, Venice
In Burano, fishermen are still very much part of everyday life. The Cooperativa San Marco has been operating since 1896 and today has around 90 members. Through its fishing tourism experiences, visitors join them—not aboard a tourist boat, but on a real working fishing boat.
Since 2010, Cooperativa San Marco has promoted fishing tourism as a form of responsible travel, designed to showcase the cultural, environmental, and social heritage of the Venetian Lagoon. The excursion takes place in the waters around Burano and Torcello aboard traditional wooden fishing boats, with fishermen who still use nasse, reti da posta, and cogolli—centuries-old fishing techniques that embody the close relationship between the fisherman and the lagoon ecosystem.
You’ll see the barene (salt marshes), Manila clam farms, and traditional reed casoni. You’ll learn to tell the navigable channels from the velme, the tidal mudflats. And you’ll understand why the northern lagoon—far from the traffic of the vaporetti—is still a fragile, living ecosystem, not just a postcard.
The cooperative has also developed I-Lagoon, an iPad video and audio guide that enriches the excursion with information and footage about the traditions of lagoon fishing. On request, the experience can be combined with lunch at the cooperative’s ittiturismo, where the day’s catch is served.
This is an independent editorial feature.
Practical Information
Location: Burano, Venice
Duration: Half a Day
Estimated price: From €240 per group (up to 6 people)
