Sale of fish bladder is a millionaire market in the North – 08/27/2023 – Environment

Shortly before 7 am on a Sunday, movement in front of the port area of ​​Bragança, in the coastal region of Pará, was practically non-existent. Few people walked the streets surrounding the municipal market, with the exception of those who had been there since the night before, drinking and dancing to music coming from the speakers of a parked car.

On the pier, a single vessel was being washed by workers after unloading goods the night before.

Around 8am, a boat docked with about a dozen people, who began to take the fish out of the fleet’s hold. Dozens of fish, all of them with their bellies cut open and their viscera removed, arrived still fresh.

Straight ahead, at a fork between the main avenue and a street that leads to the mother church, a storefront said: “Buy stick”.

Grude is what the swim bladder of fish is called, whose name refers to its use in the manufacture of glue and as a fixative for cosmetics. The product is also used in China for alleged medicinal properties, never scientifically proven, just like shark fins. The demand from Asia generates a millionaire market in the North of Brazil.

Although the exploitation of the bladder is not prohibited, irregularities can permeate this practice, from fishing by illegal vessels to the capture of endangered species.

“Fishing in this region is divided into two: smaller-scale artisanal fishing, which is more for subsistence or for sale by fishermen in the region, and industrial or large-scale fishing, which mainly targets the fish, which has a very high price in the market. international market”, explains Bianca Bentes, researcher at UFPA (Federal University of Pará).

“The bladder [natatória] it was widely used as a clarifying agent in the wine industry, then it became a glue and now it is used as collagen in medicine and the cosmetics industry”, he also says.

Industrial fishing and overfishing affect artisanal fishing communities, as they cause shortages of fish for subsistence and ecological imbalances. “Fishing comes from the North [do país, na costa do Amapá] and then they kill them there and then there’s nothing left for us”, reports fisherman Adiel Miranda, 63, who lives in Ajuruteua, in the municipality of Bragança.

The chain of stickiness can also involve sanitary infractions, both at the time of withdrawal and handling of the product, which is sold dry or fresh. Recently, Segup (Secretary of Public Security and Defense) of Pará seized more than 90 kg of goo in Marajó bay, valued at R$ 252,000 (or R$ 2,800 per kg), according to Federal Police agents.

“It’s crazy. People buy it like drugs,” said a fisherman who was on the pier that morning and who asked not to be named. He said that the removal of the bladder is done on the vessels themselves, still at sea. “They take it out and it’s dry. It’s sent to people outside the country.”

Among the main species of economic interest are yellow hake (Cynoscion acoupa) and gurijuba (Sciades parkeri), the latter protected. “But with the depletion of these stocks due to fishing pressure, many vessels are now looking for other species to withdraw the product, such as the goose hake (macrodon ancylodon)”, explains Bentes.

In the scientific literature, there are data on the process of removal, production and commercialization of the fish throughout the north coast of the country, the most productive in the fishing sector.

Many fishermen are exploited by the owners of the vessels, who supply fishing material and fuel, but force them to pass on a large part of the sale or the products themselves, which in some cases generates a constant debt with the bosses.

“Who really wins is the ‘smuggler’, the fisherman earns little, because sometimes we have to leave in two or three, spend eight days at sea, and then if you make R$ 200 and share it in three, there’s nothing left. He no, he has the R$ 200 just for him”, reports Miranda.

Asked about legislation to protect Brazilian species and combat overfishing, Ibama reinforced that there is currently no ban on the exploitation of fish swim bladders, but that the agency works to monitor irregular vessels.

The MPA (Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture) said, in a note, that there are no foreign vessels operating on the Brazilian coast of the country in a regulated manner, that is, legally.

The ministry also stated that it “works with various commissions and international groups” and “has been updating the current regulations in order to curb illegal, unreported and unreported fishing.”

Segup, on the other hand, pointed out that “in the last four years it has invested in 84 new vessels, destined for the municipalities that have a river area, in order to carry out the inspection of environmental crimes”.

The report was supported by the Earth Journalism Network.