If Kalamış has a memory, it must owe some of that memory to Sezar Berberoğlu. Listening to him talk about Kalamış, whose streets he has walked for 60 years, is like living Kalamış all over again.

 

Father's side is from Kumkapı Langa. From Kalamış since 63. At Köhne since 68. If you wonder what "Köhne" is, it is a tea garden that no longer exists. It was next door to where the marina offices are today, back then everyone was meeting at Köhne. Speaking of names, the pier was also called Gondol back then. Kalamış was only populated in summer, and those were summer residents. The road was closed for vehicles. Everywhere was an orchard or a picnic area. There was even a zoo nearby with a lion. That was the picture until the apartment buildings were built in the 80s.

 

 

Mr. Sezar knows Sadun Boro and Edip Ossa, who raised him. He also remembers Münir Nurettin Selçuk, the pier he owned and the way he shooed away children. Throughout his childhood, he wandered around with a clam in one hand and a fishing rod in the other. The fishing rods were old ones from Hulusi Baba (Father) over the Kalamış Sailing Club. First, fishing from the shore, and then from a boat. The boats were rented from Hasan Reis (Captain). This is how his love for the sea grows. It grows so much that one day at the age of 30, he decides to quit doing his father's profession and live entirely by the sea.

 

He buys his first boat, "Melisa", in debt. He meets Muzaffer Akın Reis (Captain) and his fishing adventures begin. He catches halibuts, flounders, seabreams, gurnards and sometimes lobsters in winter, and bluefish in August and September. Sometimes turbots around the Kınalıada. He finds and catches the first squid in Istanbul. Unlike many people, he says, many fish species can still be caught in the Bosphorus. "There are fewer flounders," he says, "fewer scorpionfish, fewer striped seabreams, not so much brush tooth lizardfish and cod anymore, but we catch all the others." He knows their place and the season for them. Don't insist, he definitely won't tell. After all, mastery means secrets. Fishing aside, Mr. Sezar is a boat master. He knows engines, he knows how to repair a boat. He does this kind of stuff when there is a storm.

 

 

Aside from Skipper Sezar and Master Sezar, there is also Captain Sezar! But, what kind of a captain? A captain who talks to the sea, who struggles with the sea, who bears the burden of the sea. He tells how he rescued young sailors stranded off Sivri Ada in winter. How he got there in a few hours in the middle of the night, talking to the wind, racing with the currents and intuitively finding their place in the dark. His bravery comes not from imagination but from loyalty. Loyalty to truth, to nature. One is filled with confidence when he talks.

 

He knows every corner, every climate, every current of Marmara. He says it will be cold when he sees the cormorants. In May the wind will blow and the swallows will leave. When the storks appear, summer is definitely coming. Meanwhile, "Get ready," he warns, "serious snowfall is coming soon!"

 

A man who knows what he lives and lives what he knows. While some complain about the smell of rotten seaweed, Mr. Sezar says this is the trick. "The sea cleans up its own dirt," he says. "It leaves its garbage in the sand, then it brings sand and covers it up. Over time, the substances under the sand mix into the soil". For now, he says, a major cause of marine pollution is the concreting and rock-filling of coasts. He states that the garbage that the sea cannot throw ashore rots in the sea.

 

If your boat needs repairs, Mr. Sezar is there. If you are having problems at sea, Mr. Sezar is there again. He is by the old ferry pier, still in his mother's arms.

 

Photographs: Sezar Berberoğlu archive