Large vessels put pressure on artisanal fishing in Pará – 08/27/2023 – Environment

The environmental impact of fishing on the north coast of the country is already beginning to be felt by artisanal fishing communities in Pará.

With large vessels, industrial fishing, generally aimed at selling the product on the international market, affects endangered species of coastal fauna and also fishing communities.

This is because, with the increasingly frequent arrival of foreign vessels, in search of fish, such as snapper (Lutjanus purpureus), and crustaceans such as lobster (Nephropidae family), traditional communities are at the mercy of employers and increasingly experience the decline in the population of animals.

“It’s been about ten years since the fish come here more and more rarely. Because they go to fish in the North [do país, na costa do Amapá] and there’s not much fish left for us here”, says Adiel Miranda, 63, who was born and lives in the village of Ajuruteua in Pará, near Bragança (214 km from Belém), and has been a fisherman since he was eight years old.

One of the most observed impacts is the drop in fish populations caused by overfishing, says Bianca Bentes, professor at UFPA (Federal University of Pará), Bragança campus.

“Long-range fishing actually started in 1970, mainly when boats started to come from the Northeast to the North due to the lack of stocks in that region. Cargo boats in search of snapper, lobster, and in that same period we had the introduction of industrial trawling”, explains the researcher.

As competition with large vessels is often unfair, fishermen often associate themselves with a “patrão” or “crossers”, as employers who sell fish in the region’s markets are called. They provide the fuel for the boats and take the goods in exchange for 50% of the value of the fish.

“Fishing itself is getting more and more difficult. You spend around R$3,000 on a simple corral and, if you can’t catch anything, you won’t pay for the equipment”, says Lázaro Fernandes, 62, fisherman and carimbó master, too. resident of Ajuruteua.

Large fishing vessels cause an imbalance in species when animals are removed from the sea without respecting the reproduction and maintenance time of those populations.

“I know that the sea gives us everything, but we need to respect the weather [deles]. Now the lobster people want to enjoy it, they said: ‘Mr. Adiel, you want to see fish, it’s over there on the drag boat’ [em referência à pesca de arrasto]but they spoil the fish, throw everything away”, says the artisanal fisherman.

In almost the entire coast of Pará, in 2005, by means of a decree by President Lula (PT), protection units where fishing and extractivism are controlled, the resex (extractive reserves).

As a reserve, residents of the region have authorization for sustainable use. This helps ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute of Biodiversity) to monitor the amount of fish and crabs that are caught, as well as to establish periods of the so-called “closed season”, when fishing is not allowed.

“It is also an extremely delicate area, because it is heavily populated, and there is no way to remove people from there. So the solution is the creation of resex to help protect the environment and also ensure the survival of fishermen there”, says Alberto Akama, ichthyologist (fish specialist) and researcher at the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, .

Fernandes, who is also the representative of the village of Ajuruteua on the council of the Marine Extractive Reserve Caeté-Taperaçu with ICMBio, says that the community learned in workshops and meetings the practice of management. “This is important to guarantee our survival”, he points out.

The lack of national fisheries control legislation also opens up possibilities for overfishing and predatory fishing. According to the SisRGP portal (Computerized System for the General Record of Fishing Activity), where fishing statistics are concentrated, artisanal fishermen are instructed to fill out a register informing the amount caught.

But experts claim that this data suffers from underreporting. “According to our studies, we know that almost nothing that is caught and exported is communicated, because the data made available to the government do not match the maps on board”, evaluates Bentes.

The report “Auditoria da Pesca 2022”, produced by the NGO Oceana and released in July of this year, reveals that only 51% of the 49 fisheries assessed had inspection control, and only six (12%) presented some type of data on incidental fishing —when the captured animal was not the one for which there was fishing guidance.

According to Ibama, the agency has been increasing the fleet and inspections regarding the landing of fish along the entire Brazilian coast. “Inspection of fishing activity must take place throughout the chain of custody, for which it is essential that the fish traceability system be implemented, as with forest resources,” the agency said in a statement.

The MPA (Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture) stated that more than 2,000 fishing vessels operate in the North region.

The folder stated, however, that there are no “foreign fleets operating on the Brazilian coast legally, that is, authorized by the MPA”.

Finally, ICMBio said that irregular activities carried out within the marine and RESEX UCs (conservation units) must be reported to the body “through community counselors, community associations, complaints via message group or protocol in the [site] gov.br”.

_{The report was carried out with the support of the Earth Journalism Network.}