Reconstruction of Marine Commercial Landings for the Brazilian Industrial and Artisanal Fisheries From 1950 to 2015

Abstract

Landing data are the most basic information used to manage fisheries, although they are often unavailable or incomplete. The objective of this work was to reconstruct the national database of marine commercial landings for the Brazilian industrial and artisanal fisheries, from 1950 to 2015. Total landings increased strongly from 1950 to mid-1980s and suffered sharp decline in the early 1990s, mainly associated to the collapse of sardine fisheries. After that, another period of increasing landings was observed, but at a much lower rate. Industrial landings always surpassed artisanal landings in Brazilian waters, except for the beginning of the time series, when many industrial fleets had not started yet, and in the early 2000s, when a change in the methodology for collecting landing statistics was implemented in the state of Pará leading to an overestimation of artisanal landings. Artisanal fisheries have been declining since 2005, which is worrisome due to the social impact it may have on local income and food security. Regional differences were also observed, with industrial landings being always higher than artisanal landings in southeastern-southern Brazil, while the opposite was true for the northern-northeastern regions. Higher landings were observed in the southeastern-southern regions when both artisanal and industrial fleets were combined. Sardine and demersal fishes were the main resources landed by industrial fishers. Artisanal fishers caught more species than their industrial counterpart, featuring Xiphopenaeus kroyeri, Cynoscion acoupa, and Ucides cordatus. Although the fishing of Epinephelus itajara was banned in Brazil, it continues to be landed. Yet, catches of this species and others under some threat status are still not properly registered, including: Carcharhinus longimanus, Galeorhinus galeus, Sphyrna lewini, Sphyrna mokarran, Pristis pectinata, and Pseudobatos horkelii. Fishing resources not identified in previous landing reconstruction efforts, such as sea urchins and sea cucumbers, have now been reported. The database presented here should be continuously updated and improved. It is of paramount importance to resume the collection of landing statistics, including information on fishing effort, to assess the relative impact of fisheries and environmental factors on the main Brazilian fishing stocks.

Bridging archaeology and marine conservation in the Neotropics

“…Yet, there is no evidence that this species was affected by over shing, such as could be indicated by a declining number in catches 39,87,88 . By contrast, the targeting of M. furnieri by small-scale and industrial sheries in recent times have led to a decrease in abundance to the point that it is now considered overexploited 23,24 .…”

“…The study area is located between 25°S and 31.5°S latitude, and encompasses nearly 1000 km of coastline between the southern Atlantic Forest and the grassland Pampa biomes. The region includes several ecosystems supporting a great diversity of sh 15 , including stocks of economic importance to both small-scale and industrial sheries [23][24][25] , such Sciaenidae (e.g. Micropogonias furnieri, Pogonia courbina), Ariidae (Genidens sp.…”

“…However, in the last decades, population growth, increasing urbanisation, industrialisation, agricultural and tourism expansion have caused signi cant impacts on coastal environments in these regions [20][21][22] . The southern region, comprising the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul, have historically been the largest sh producing territories in Brazil 23 , and thus are strategic areas for marine conservation within the context of a sustainable blue economy and blue growth. Yet several economically important demersal sh species are currently threatened by over shing, bycatch and habitat degradation 24,25 .…”

New Insight Into the Reproductive Biology and Catch of Juveniles of the Lutjanus purpureus in a Portion of the Great Amazon Reef System Off the Northern Brazilian Coast

“…The Amazon reef plays a fundamental role in the reproductive ecology of the species. Maps of benthic habitats and plume dynamics are predictors of the biodiversity and distribution of the L. purpureus fishing fleet (Francini-Filho et al, 2018;Araujo et al, 2021).…”

Demography of the black grouper, Mycteroperca bonaci (Poey, 1860) (Teleostei: Epinephelidae) from the North Brazil Shelf

“…8% of the total weight of demersal fish commercially exploited (Ibama., 1999a; Ibama., 1999b; Lessa et al ., 2004). The present level of capture is uncertain due to a lack of official statistics since 2008 (Freire et al ., 2021). Reconstruction of catches, however, indicates that Brazilian catches still account for the majority of reported and reconstructed catches in the western Atlantic (Freire et al ., 2021), although declines of 30%–50% have been reported on landings, interviews (Teixeira et al ., 2004; Bender et al ., 2014; Giglio et al ., 2014) and catch per unit effort data from Brazil over the past three generation lengths (Padovani‐Ferreira et al ., 2018), prompting an evaluation of its national status as vulnerable according to the Brazilian red list (Icmbio, Instituto Chico Mendes DE Conservação DA Biodiversidade, 2018).…”