Marks, points and lines in the Colombian Caribbean Sea

Abstract

This article explains how the traditional fishermen of Old Providence, La Boquilla and Taganga, use “empirical knowledge” to create marks or points to navigate and fish in the Colombian Caribbean Sea without using GPS. The pilot of the boat, with “common sense” and ancestral experience, creates a mental navigation route to go fishing. This navigation map has reference marks or fixed points on the beach used as coordinates which unite in the moving plane that is the Caribbean Sea, allowing for travel. The ethnographic methodology, from interviews, context and information collected, demonstrates the process of extracting the image from the mind of the fisherman to make it visible to the fishermen as well as to the community. These analyzed and recreated images, verified through photo-elicitation, allow the mental drawings of the fishermen to be seen and are then transferred to a digital platform. In conclusion: the experience of revealing the mental maps of artisanal fishermen, through drawings in ink and graphite on paper, then transferred to a digital platform, offers a new look at navigation charts and oral stories of fishermen, visualized in a digital sea.