Neither fish nor man will forget this good deed

Balcı, a fisherman since the age of 11, can be seen in many newspaper clippings, which show him standing next to giant sharks. He’s the first person that comes to mind when you say “shark hunter.” Balcı attracted much attention once again last week when he put a shark weighing one ton on display in front of his restaurant in İstanbul’s Gürpınar neighborhood. He is not only known for his shark-hunting skills but also for his devotion to the sea and for his ability to constantly add a new species to his collection in the Sea Creatures Museum, which he set up through his own personal efforts.

The museum, located in the Beylikdüzü branch of his restaurant and a product of Balcı’s 20 years of hard work, features many kinds of marine species, including stingray, eel, poisonous balloonfish, tuna weighing 200 kilograms, octopuses, crabs and clams from overseas. Collecting this many sea creatures is a difficult process. The hardest part is to preserve the fish as they release a strong odor if they are not prepared within one day. Balcı has been preserving fish for 20 years. However, his first eight years were a failure. Since the museum is the first of its kind, he had to discover how to use taxidermy on fish on his own. Every fish he preserved while experimenting either got infected with worms or broke with the slightest touch. Balcı finally managed to find the right balance for the taxidermy material after working on it for eight years. He has been doing this professionally for the last 12 years. In fact, he even has a place that is equipped with coolers where he embalms the fish.

The fisherman notes that he will start the taxidermy process on a new shark he caught in the next few days. What is the cost involved? “The material I use is not very expensive, but it takes a lot of labor. It takes two months for three people to embalm a shark that weighs one ton. You have to preserve its shape and make sure it does not smell. Therefore, it requires a lot of effort. I try to do it myself personally because it really is a difficult job and it smells pretty bad. Many people don’t want to do it.” The museum Balcı developed over the course of many years features 500 different sea species.

Preserving endangered fish for future generations

Explaining why he preserves fish, Balcı says: “My passion for the sea began at an early age. I always saw the sea as a mystery. I still do, actually. After school, my friends would go home, but I would find myself next to the fishermen along the Kadıköy pier. I didn’t have any money back then. I would use stockings to make a net or heat sewing needles and use them as fishhooks and try to catch fish. Even though I didn’t have a fishing pole, I would catch three to four kilograms of fish in one day. I would catch a range of fish, including swordfish, bluefish and large blue fish. We would sell them for the price of anchovies because they were so abundant. None of them are available now. Even if you find them, they are very expensive. When I realized that the fish were disappearing, I started wondering how I could preserve them for future generations. And so I decided to set up this museum. I want people to see what there is in the sea.”

High risk leads fishermen to avoid sharks

Sharks are fish even fishermen do not want to run into. Balcı notes that it is very dangerous to have a shark get caught in the net. A blow with its tail to the boat can have a force of 200 kilograms. This causes damage to the boat or, even worse, it can cause it to capsize. “About 20 years ago, we used to catch giant tunas with steel rope fishing lines. We would attach a two-and-a-half-kilogram large blue fish to the end of the hook. But that is a very dangerous thing to do because, once the fish eats the bait, it will drag and shake the boat at a speed of 60 kilometers. You end up going in all directions. Someone waits in the front of the boat with a sharp tool in hand just in case something goes wrong because, at that speed, a fish can head towards a ship, a breakwater or a piece of land. In those kinds of cases, to prevent collision, the rope is cut off and the fish is let go,” he says.

If I’d invested in land instead of the sea, I’d make 10 times more