Ustka’s living maritime heritage: Reviving Baltic fishing traditions for future generations

Along the windswept Pomeranian coast of Poland, Ustka is a town shaped by the sea. For generations, fishing defined daily life here, leaving a legacy that still lives on in the harbour, the streets and the memories of local people. 

Driven by a vision to revive local identity and reconnect residents and tourists with maritime culture, a series of small projects supported by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) has brought that heritage back to life. Through reenactments, interactive exploration and open-air art, Ustka has turned its fishing heritage into a living, year-round story.

In Ustka, the sea is more than a landscape. Fishing was part of the town’s identity, rhythm and values. Local partners set out to make this heritage visible again, not as something distant or nostalgic, but as something people can experience for themselves.

“People often forget how much work, patience and respect for the sea stand behind every fish,” says Aleksandra Klimczuk from the Słowińska FLAG. “These projects help them see the profession differently, and that fish do not just come from a factory or supermarket.”

One of the most striking moments came during the town’s annual Fish Harvest Festival of the Sea, a festival celebrated for 11 years. With EU funding support for the August 2022 edition, the Municipal Office of Ustka transformed the event into an immersive historical showcase. Guided by an ethnographer researching early twentieth-century Pomeranian clothing and fishing gear, local actors staged the return of traditional wooden fishing boats to the harbour.

The two-day festival drew large crowds and gave visitors a vivid glimpse of life by the Baltic in the early twentieth-century. It was a reminder of the people, skills and hard work behind the coastal way of life.