Mario Puratić

Collection title

More

ID

HRT00075

Source

HRT (HR)

First broadcast date

03/10/2004

Production year

2004

Abstract

Fishermen in Sumartin are talking about the ways of fishing and about inventor of a winch who was born on island Brač. Puratić was born in 1917 in the town of Sumartin on the island of Brač in a family of farmers and fishermen. In 1938 he immigrated to the United States. To facilitate extraction of the net from the sea, he invented revolutionary fishing equipment that was relatively easy to use. Due to his invention, Peru increased its fishing pelagic fish by 300 percent. Within a few months, during 1953 in San Pedro, CA, he invented the Puretic power block. A job which once needed 8 to 10 people could now equally quickly be done with only 5 or 6 people, but still no one was interested in the product. In 1955, the company Marco from Seattle, specialized in sea building and design, recognized the potential of his invention and its engineers produced a product for practical use called the Power Block. It has a form of evening pulley with aluminium skeleton and the central rotating element, often wrapped in hard rubber, which can work. Quality of the product was very quickly recognized and up until 1960, most fishing boats in the northern seine fleet had installed the power block. It made possible the renaissance of the moribund United States distant water tuna fleet, an event that put the United States into the forefront of the fishing world and has kept it there, helped by the adoption of synthetic fibers for netting. The puretic power block revolutionized the fishing industry in such a way that FAO stated that no single invention has contributed more to the success of purse seine net hauling than extensive line of Power Blocks.

Type

video

Production companies

• Radio Croatia ( HRT ) - Own production

Broadcaster

HRT - HRT

Audiovisual form

Magazine

Personalities

• Brekalo Branka
• Arković Pavle
• Cvitanović Luka
• Staničić Milan
• Vrsalović Tomislav

Primary theme

Fishing and harbour activities

Secondary themes

• Economy / Techniques and technologies

Credits / Cast

• Granic Pero - Photographer
• Brekalo Branka - Journalist

Period of events

• From 1925 to 1950

Map locations

• Croatia - Dalmatia - Sumartin

Original language

croatian

Media running time

4m9