Abstract
The management of small-scale freshwater fisheries in Amazon has been based usually on surveys of urban markets, while fisheries of rural villages have gone unnoticed. We compared the fishing characteristics (catch, effort and selectivity) between an urban market and five small villages in the Lower Tocantins River (Brazilian Amazon), downstream from a large reservoir. We recorded 86 and 601 fish landings in the urban market and villages, respectively, using the same methodology. The urban fishers showed higher catch per unit of effort, higher amount of ice (related to a higher fishing effort, as ice is used to store fish catches) and larger crew size per fishing trip, but village fishers had a higher estimated annual fish production. Conversely, urban and village fishers used similar fishing gear (gillnets) and the main fish species caught were the same. However, village fishers showed more diverse strategies regarding gear, habitats and fish caught. Therefore, although it underestimated the total amount of fish caught in the Lower Tocantins River region, the data from the urban market could be a reliable indicator of main fish species exploited and fishing gear used by village fishers. Monitoring and management should consider the differences and similarities between urban and rural fisheries, in Amazon and in other tropical regions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agostinho AA, Gomes LC, Veríssimo S, Okada EK (2004) Flood regime, dam regulation and fish in the Upper Paraná River: effects on assemblage attributes, reproduction and recruitment. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 14:11–19
Ali AB, Lee KY (1995) Chenderoh Reservoir, Malaysia: a characterization of a small-scale, multigear and multispecies artisanal fishery in the tropics. Fisheries Research 23:267–281
Almeida OT, McGrath DG, Ruffino ML (2001) The commercial fisheries of the lower Amazon: an economic analysis. Fisheries Management and Ecology 8:253–269
Almeida OT, Lorenzen K, McGrath DG (2009) Fishing agreements in the lower Amazon: for gain and restraint. Fisheries Management and Ecology 16:61–67
Ayres M, Ayres M Jr, Ayres DL, Santos AS (2000) BioEstat 2.0. Aplicações estatísticas nas areas das ciências biológicas e médicas. MCT/CNPq and Sociedade Civil Mamirauá, Brasília, Brazil, p 272
Batista VS, Inhamuns AJ, Freitas CEC, Freire-Brasil D (1998) Characterization of the fishery in river communities in the low-Solimões/high-Amazon region. Fisheries Management and Ecology 5:419–435
Bayley PB, Petrere M Jr (1989) Amazon fisheries: assessment methods, current status and management options. In: Dodge DP (ed), Proceedings of the International Large River Symposium (LARS). Canadian Special Publication of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 106, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, pp 385–398
Begossi A, Silvano RAM, Amaral BD, Oyakawa OT (1999) Use of local resources by fishers and hunters in an extractive reserve (Upper Juruá, Acre, Brazil). Environment, Development and Sustainability 1:73–93
Camargo SAF, Petrere M Jr (2001) Social and financial aspects of the artisanal fisheries of Middle São Francisco River, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Fisheries Management and Ecology 8:163–171
Camargo SAF, Petrere M Jr (2004) Análise de risco aplicada ao manejo precaucionário das pescarias artesanais na região do Reservatório da UHE-Tucuruí (Pará, Brasil). Acta Amazonica 34:473–485
Cardoso RS, Freitas CEC (2007) Desembarque e esforço de pesca da frota pesqueira comercial de Manicoré (Médio Rio Madeira), Amazonas, Brasil. Acta Amazônica 37(4):605–612
Cardoso RS, Freitas CEC (2008) A pesca de pequena escala no rio Madeira pelos desembarques ocorridos em Manicoré (Estado do Amazonas), Brasil. Acta Amazônica 38:781–788
Castello L, Viana JP, Watkins G, Pinedo-Vasquez, Luzadis VA (2009) Lessons from integrating fishers of arapaima in small-scale fisheries management at the Mamirauá Reserve, Amazon. Environmental Management 43:197–209
Cerdeira RGP, Ruffino ML, Isaac VJ (2000) Fish catches among riverside communities around lago Grande de Monte Alegre, Lower Amazon, Brasil. Fisheries Management and Ecology 7:355–374
Cetra M, Petrere M Jr (2001) Small-scale fisheries in the middle River Tocantins, Imperatriz (MA), Brazil. Fisheries Management and Ecology 8:153–162
Costa LRF, Barthem RB, Bittencourt MM (2001) A pesca do tambaqui, Colossoma macropomum, com enfoque na área do Médio Solimões, Amazonas, Brasil. Acta Amazonica 31(3):449–468
de Merona B (1990) Amazon fisheries: general characteristics based on two case-studies. Interciencia 15:461–468
de Merona B, Juras AA, Santos GM, Cintra, IHA (2010) Os peixes e a pesca no Baixo Tocantins: 20 anos depois da UHE Tucurui. Eletronorte, Brasília, Brazil, p 208
Fearnside PM (1999) Social impacts of Brazil’s Tucuruí Dam. Environmental Management 24:483–495
Fernandes CC (1997) Lateral migration of fishes in Amazon floodplains. Ecology of Freshwater Fish 6:36–44
Garcia A, Tello S, Vargas G, Duponchelle F (2009) Patterns of commercial fish landings in the Loreto region (Peruvian Amazon) between 1984 and 2006. Fish Physiology and Biochemistry 35:53–67
Isaac VJ, Milstein A, Ruffino ML (1996) A pesca artesanal no Baixo Amazonas: análise multivariada da captura por espécie. Acta Amazonica 26:185–208
Isaac VJ, Silva CO, Ruffino ML (2008) The artisanal fishery fleet of the lower Amazon. Fisheries Management and Ecology 15:179–187
Johannes RE (1998) The case for data-less marine resource management: examples from tropical nearshore finfisheries. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 13:243–246
Kenney AJ, Krebs CJ (2000) Ecological methodology. Software, Version 5.2
Khoa SN, Lorenzen K, Garaway C, Chamsinhg B, Siebert D, Randone M (2005) Impacts of irrigation on fisheries in rain-fed rice-farming Landscapes. Journal of Applied Ecology 42:892–900
MacCord PFL, Silvano RAM, Ramires MS, Clauzet M, Begossi A (2007) Dynamics of artisanal fisheries in two Brazilian Amazonian reserves: implications to co-management. Hydrobiologia 583:365–376
Magurran AE (1988) Ecological diversity and its measurement. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, p 179
Malhi Y, Roberts JT, Betts RA, Killeen TJ, Li W, Nobre CA (2008) Climate change, deforestation, and the fate of the Amazon. Science 319:169–172
McGrath DG, Silva UL, Crossa NMM (1997) A traditional floodplain fishery of the lower Amazon River, Brazil. PLEC News and Views 8:4–11
McGrath DG, Cardoso A, Almeida OT, Pezzuti J (2008) Constructing a policy and institutional framework for an ecosystem-based approach to managing the Lower Amazon floodplain. Environment, Development and Sustainability 10:677–695
Navy H, Bhattarai M (2006) Economic assessment of small-scale inland fisheries and wetland livelihoods in Camboja. Proceeding of the international river symposium, Brisbane, Australia, 4–7, September, 2006, available online
Oliveira DM, Frédou T, Lucena F (2007) The fishery in Amazon Estuary: an uni-and multivariate analysis. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi Ciências Naturais, Belém 2:11–21
Petrere M Jr (1996) Fisheries in large tropical reservoirs in South America. Lakes & Reservoirs: Research and Management 2:111–133
Petrere M Jr, Barthem RB, Córdoba EA, Gómez BC (2004) Review of the large catfish fisheries in the upper Amazon and the stock depletion of piraíba (Brachyplatystoma filamentosum Lichtenstein). Reviews on Fish Biology and Fisheries 14:403–414
Ribeiro MCLB, Petrere M Jr, Juras AA (1995) Ecological integrity and fisheries ecology of the Araguaia-Tocantins River Basin, Brazil. Regulated Rivers Research and Management 2:325–350
Ruffino ML (2004) A pesca e os recursos pesqueiros na Amazônia brasileira. IBAMA/ProVárzea, Manaus, Brazil, p 272
Santos GM, de Merona B, Juras AA, Jégu M (2004) Peixes do baixo rio Tocantins: 20 anos depois da Usina Hidrelétrica Tucuruí. Eletronorte, Brasília, Brazil, p 216
Silva AL, Begossi A (2009) Biodiversity, food consumption and ecological niche dimension: a study case of the riverine populations from the Rio Negro, Amazonia, Brazil. Environment, Development and Sustainability 11:489–507
Silvano RAM, Begossi A (2001) Seasonal dynamics of fishery at the Piracicaba River (Brazil). Fisheries Research 51:69–86
Silvano RAM, Hallwass G, Ribeiro AR, Hasenack H, Juras AA, Lopes PF, Clauzet M, Begossi A, Lima RP, Zuanon J (2009) Pesca, Etnoictiologia e Ecologia de Peixes em Lagoas e Igarapés do Baixo Rio Tocantins. Anais do V Congresso de Inovação Tecnológica em Energia Elétrica (V CITENEL), available online
Ticheler HJ, Kolding J, Chanda B (1998) Participation of local fishermen in scientific fisheries data collection: a case study from the Bangweulu Swamps, Zambia. Fisheries Management and Ecology 5:81–92
Weyl OLF, Nyasulu TE, Rusuwa B (2005) Assessment of catch, effort and species changes in the pair-trawl fishery of southern Lake Malawi, Malawi, Africa. Fisheries Management and Ecology 12:395–402
Acknowledgments
Thanks are given to the fishers of the studied villages and the town of Baião for their invaluable cooperation; to Eletronorte staff of Tucuruí, for their assistance with fieldwork; to Sofia Gasparotto, Renata P. Lima; Ariane R. Ribeiro and Mariana Clauzet for their help with fieldwork; to Jansen A.S. Zuanon for help with fish identifications; to Heinrick Hasenack for map drawing; to IBAMA for a permit to collect fish; to anonymous reviewers for useful comments on an earlier version of this article; to the Centrais Elétricas do Norte do Brasil S/A (Eletronorte) for financial support to the research (contract 4500057477, ELN/ANEEL/FAURGS) and for research grants to G. Hallwass, P.F. Lopes and R.A.M. Silvano.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hallwass, G., Lopes, P.F., Juras, A.A. et al. Fishing Effort and Catch Composition of Urban Market and Rural Villages in Brazilian Amazon. Environmental Management 47, 188–200 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-010-9584-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-010-9584-1