Abstracts

Introduction

Despite a lack of government support, small-scale fisheries still have high socioeconomic relevance along the Brazilian coast, with about one million people involved in this activity (Vasconcellos et al. 2011VASCONCELOS, M., DIEGUES, A.C. & KALIKOSKI, D.C. 2011. Coastal fisheries of Brazil. In: Salas, S., Chuenpagdee, R., Charles, A., Seijo, J.C. (eds.) Coastal fisheries of Latin America and the Caribbean. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper. No. 544. Rome, FAO, p. 73-116.). Even in the southeast region, where industrial fisheries account for most landings, the artisanal sector is still responsible for almost 40% of production (Vasconcellos et al. 2007VASCONCELLOS, M., DIEGUES, A.C.S.A. & SALES, R.R. 2007. Limites e possibilidades na gestão da pesca artesanal costeira. In: Costa, A.L. (Org.) Nas Redes da Pesca Artesanal. Brasília: IBAMA - MMA, p. 15-83.). This situation reinforces the importance of understanding, assessing and effectively managing coastal fisheries (Salas et al. 2011SALAS, S., CHUENPAGDEE, R., CHARLES, A. & SEIJO, J.C. 2011. Coastal fisheries of Latin America and the Caribbean. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper. No. 544. Rome, FAO. p. 430.). However, statistical data and basic information, including the species richness of fishes caught, are both still scarce and incomplete (Alves et al. 2009ALVES, P.M.F., ARFELLI, C.A. & TOMÁS, A.R.G. 2009. Caracterização da pesca de emalhe do litoral do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Bol. Inst. Pesca. 35(1):17-27., Salas et al. 2011SALAS, S., CHUENPAGDEE, R., CHARLES, A. & SEIJO, J.C. 2011. Coastal fisheries of Latin America and the Caribbean. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper. No. 544. Rome, FAO. p. 430.).

In São Paulo state, southern Brazil, most of the fish species inventories conducted have occurred along the northern and central coasts (Braga & Goitein 1984BRAGA, F.M.S. & GOITEIN, R. 1984. Lista prévia das espécies de peixes demersais na região da Ilha Anchieta (Lat. 23° 33′S - Long. 45° 05), Ubatuba, litoral norte do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Naturalia. 9:61-72., Lopes et al. 1993LOPES, R.G., RODRIGUES, E.S., PUZZI, A., PITA, J.B., COELHO, J.A.P. & FREITAS, M.L. 1993. Levantamento ictiofaunistico em um ponto fixo na baia de santos, Estado de São Paulo. Brasil. Bol. Inst. Pesca. 20:7-20., Giannini & Paiva-Filho 1995GIANNINI, R. & PAIVA-FILHO, A.M. 1995. Análise comparativa da ictiofauna da zona de arrebentação de praias arenosas do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Bol. Inst. Ocean. 43(2):141-152., Muto et al. 2000MUTO, E.Y., SOARES, E.S.H. & ROSSI-WONGTSCHOWSKI, C.L.D.B. 2000. Demersal fish assemblages Off São Sebastião, southeastern Brazil: Structure and environmental conditioning factors (summer 1994). Rev. Bras. Ocean. 48(1):9-27., Gibran & Moura 2012GIBRAN, F.Z. & MOURA, R.L. 2012. The structure of rocky reef fish assemblages across a nearshore to coastal islands'gradient in Southeastern Brazil. Neotrop. Ichthyol. 10(2):369-382, 10.1590/S1679-62252012005000013.
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1679-6225201200... ). Few surveys have focused on the southern to central portion of the São Paulo coast (e.g. Zani-Teixeira & Paiva-Filho 1981ZANI-TEIXEIRA, M.L. & PAIVA-FILHO, A.M. 1981. Contribuição ao conhecimento da fauna íctica costeira de região de Peruíbe, SP. II: Diversidade faunística. Rev. Bras. Biol. 41(2):291-294.). All of the studies cited were also based on scientific collecting and are therefore not adequate for evaluating the interaction between artisanal fisheries and coastal fish assemblages. This paper provides a checklist of the species of bony fishes (Actinopterygii: Teleostei) caught by small-scale fisheries along the central to south coast of São Paulo state. Comments on the relative abundance and conservation status of the species recorded are also included.

Materials and Methods

This report is associated with a long-term research on the fishery biology of coastal elasmobranchs off southeastern Brazil (PROJETO CAÇÃO), started in 1996 (Gadig et al. 2002GADIG, O.B.F., MOTTA, F.S. & NAMORA, R.C. 2002. Projeto Cação: a study on small coastal sharks in São Paulo, southeast Brazil. In: Duarte, P. (ed.) Proceedings fo the International Conference on Sustainable Management of Coastal Ecosystems. Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Porto, Portugal. p. 239-246.). Species were recorded based on weekly sampling from artisanal fisheries that operate along the central to south coast of São Paulo state. The samplings were taken from landings on the “Praia dos Pescadores” (Fishermen's Beach), city of Itanhaém (24°11'S; 46°48'W).

The fishing operations in question cover an area of approximately 600 km², with the cities of Mongaguá and Peruibe making up the northern and southern limits, respectively (Figure 1). This region lies within the inner continental shelf, with a mean water temperature of 24°C and an average salinity of 34.5 (Freitas & Muelbert, 2004FREITAS, D.M. & MUELBERT, J.H. 2004. Ichthyoplankton distribution and abundance off southeaster and Southern Brazil. Braz. Arch. Biol. Techn. 47(4):601-612, 10.1590/S1516-89132004000400014.
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1516-8913200400... ). The substrate is largely composed of fine sand, with less than 30% calcium carbonate (Figueiredo & Tessler, 2004FIGUEIREDO, A.G. & TESSLER, M.G. 2004. Topografia e composição do substrato marinho da região Sudeste-Sul do Brasil. São Paulo, Instituto Oceanográfico, USP - Série Documentos do Revizee: Score Sul, 64p.). Primary productivity in the region is mainly driven by seasonal upwellings of nutrient-rich, cold subtropical waters caused by alongshore winds and by cyclonic vortices that come from the Brazil Current (Bakun & Parrish 1990BAKUN, A. & PARRISH, R. 1990. Comparative studies of coastal pelagic fish reproductive habitat: the Brazilian sardine (Sardinella aurita). J. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer. 46:269-283, 10.1093/icesjms/46.3.269.
https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/46.3.269... , Matsuura 1995MATSUURA, Y. 1995. Os ecossistemas brasileiros e os principais macrovetores de desenvolvimento. Subsídio ao Planejamento da Gestão Ambiental. Projeto Cenários para o Planejamento da Gestão Ambiental (MMA/PNMA), Brasília, DF, p. 39-104., Vasconcellos & Gasalla 2001VASCONCELLOS, M., GASALLA, M.A. 2001. Fisheries catches and the carrying capacity of marine ecosystems in southern Brazil. Fish. Res. 50:279-295, 10.1016/S0165-7836(00)00217-4.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-7836(00)00... ).

Figure 1
Map of study area, indicating the landing point of the small-scale fishery fleet in Itanhaém, southeastern Brazil.

This fishery fleet consists of approximately 28 small-motorized boats (4-10 m long), which fish mainly with gillnets and single shrimp otter trawl nets. Gillnets are made of nylon monofilament with 1500 m in length and stretched mesh sizes varying between 7 and 14 cm. The height of the nets varies between 1.7 and 3.5 m. Nets were set up between 12 to 24 hours, within an area of 0.5 to 12 nautical miles from the shore, in waters between 5 and 35 m deep. Other fishing gear used seasonally include driftnet, trammel nets and large-sized gillnets. More detailed descriptions of those fisheries are presented by Namora et al. (2009)NAMORA, R.C., MOTTA, F.S. & GADIG, O.B.F. 2009. Caracterização da pesca artesanal da Praia dos Pescadores, Município de Itanhaém, costa centro-sul do Estado de São Paulo. Arq. Ciên. Mar. 42(2):60-67.. There are two marine protected areas in the region, the “Tupiniquins” Ecological Station (corresponding to IUCN Category Ia), created in 1986, with an area of 20 km², and the “Litoral Centro” Environmental Protected Area (corresponding to IUCN Category V), established in 2008 and comprising an area of 4,531km².

This checklist was based on 315 fishery fleet landings monitored between July 1996 and March 2007. To evaluate the relative abundance of species, 33 field campaigns were carried out in order to count the specimens landed between April 2004 and October 2006. The orders and families were listed in phylogenetic order according to Betancur-R et al. (2014)BETANCUR-R, R., WILEY, E., BAILLY, N., MIYA, M., LECOINTRE, G., ORTĺ, G. 2014. Phylogenetic Classification of Bony Fishes --Version 3 (http://www.deepfin.org/Classification_v3.htm) (accessed on 20 October 2014).
http://www.deepfin.org/Classification_v3... , and the species were organized within each family in alphabetical order. The conservation status of the species were based on global (IUCN 2013INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE - IUCN. 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. http:// www.iucnredlist.org/ (Accessed on 10 December 2013).
www.iucnredlist.org/... ), national (Machado et al. 2005MACHADO, A.B.M., MARTINS, C.S., DRUMMOND, G.M. 2005. Lista da fauna brasileira ameaçada de extinção: incluindo as espécies quase ameaçadas e deficientes em dados. Belo Horizonte: Fundação Biodiversitas.), and regional (São Paulo State 2014SECRETARIA DO MEIO AMBIENTE DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - SEMA/ SP. 2014. Decreto n° 60.133, de 7 de fevereiro de 2014. Declara as espécies da fauna silvestre ameaçadas de extinção, as quase ameaçadas e as deficientes de dados para avaliação no Estado de São Paulo e dá providências correlatas. Diário Oficial do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Poder Executivo, 8 fev. 2014. Seção 1.) levels. Voucher specimens of the some species collected during the study were deposited in the ichthyology collection of the “Acervo Zoológico da Unisanta” (AZUSC), in the city of Santos, São Paulo.

Results and Discussion

A total of 106 species, distributed among 78 genera, 38 families and 20 orders of the Teleostei were recorded (Table 1) over 10 years. The most speciose family recorded was Sciaenidae (19 species = 17.9%), followed by Carangidae (16 = 15.1%), Haemulidae (7 = 6.6%), Ariidae (6 = 5.7%), Clupeidae (5 = 4.7%), and Serranidae (4 = 3.8%).

The number of species recorded is higher than the amounts recorded during previous experimental studies conducted with beach or otter trawl nets in other regions off the coast of São Paulo state. Braga & Goitein (1984)BRAGA, F.M.S. & GOITEIN, R. 1984. Lista prévia das espécies de peixes demersais na região da Ilha Anchieta (Lat. 23° 33′S - Long. 45° 05), Ubatuba, litoral norte do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Naturalia. 9:61-72., for instance, recorded 57 species, whereas Lopes et al. (1993)LOPES, R.G., RODRIGUES, E.S., PUZZI, A., PITA, J.B., COELHO, J.A.P. & FREITAS, M.L. 1993. Levantamento ictiofaunistico em um ponto fixo na baia de santos, Estado de São Paulo. Brasil. Bol. Inst. Pesca. 20:7-20., Giannini & Paiva-Filho (1995)GIANNINI, R. & PAIVA-FILHO, A.M. 1995. Análise comparativa da ictiofauna da zona de arrebentação de praias arenosas do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Bol. Inst. Ocean. 43(2):141-152. and Muto et al. (2000)MUTO, E.Y., SOARES, E.S.H. & ROSSI-WONGTSCHOWSKI, C.L.D.B. 2000. Demersal fish assemblages Off São Sebastião, southeastern Brazil: Structure and environmental conditioning factors (summer 1994). Rev. Bras. Ocean. 48(1):9-27. recorded 78, 98 species, and 83 species, respectively. When compared to monitoring of fishing activities in adjacent areas, the number of species recorded in this study is approximately 2.5 times higher than that of Bertozzi & Zerbini (2002)BERTOZZI, C.P. & ZERBINI, A.N. 2002. Incidental mortality of franciscana (Pontoporia blainvillei) in the artesanal fishery of Praia Grande, São Paulo State, Brazil. LAJAM. 1(1):153-160, 10.5597/lajam00019.
https://doi.org/10.5597/lajam00019... , which recorded 42 species off the city of “Praia Grande”. The difference in terms of number of recorded species in this study is likely related to several factors, including the total area of operation of the fleet surveyed, the fishing gear selectivity, the magnitude of both sampling and fishing effort, and the spatial and temporal distribution of species. In the current study, for instance the fishing operation area and the magnitude of sampling and fishing effort were higher than those previous studies.

Between April 2004 and October 2006, 11,443 fish specimens of 74 species, 59 genera and 31 families were recorded. The southern king weakfish, Macrodon atricauda (Günther, 1880), and the gulf kingcroaker, Menticirrhus littoralis (Holbrook, 1847), were the most abundant species, representing 28.03% and 12.48% of the total number of specimens recorded, respectively (Table 2). Among the 20 most abundant species, 10 (50%) belonged to Sciaenidae. This finding highlight the abundance of the group in the coastal waters and its relevance to artisanal fisheries. Previous studies conducted off the coast of São Paulo state also reported a relative dominance of Sciaenidae species (Braga & Goitein 1984BRAGA, F.M.S. & GOITEIN, R. 1984. Lista prévia das espécies de peixes demersais na região da Ilha Anchieta (Lat. 23° 33′S - Long. 45° 05), Ubatuba, litoral norte do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Naturalia. 9:61-72., Lopes et al. 1993LOPES, R.G., RODRIGUES, E.S., PUZZI, A., PITA, J.B., COELHO, J.A.P. & FREITAS, M.L. 1993. Levantamento ictiofaunistico em um ponto fixo na baia de santos, Estado de São Paulo. Brasil. Bol. Inst. Pesca. 20:7-20., Giannini & Paiva-Filho 1995GIANNINI, R. & PAIVA-FILHO, A.M. 1995. Análise comparativa da ictiofauna da zona de arrebentação de praias arenosas do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Bol. Inst. Ocean. 43(2):141-152., Muto et al. 2000MUTO, E.Y., SOARES, E.S.H. & ROSSI-WONGTSCHOWSKI, C.L.D.B. 2000. Demersal fish assemblages Off São Sebastião, southeastern Brazil: Structure and environmental conditioning factors (summer 1994). Rev. Bras. Ocean. 48(1):9-27.).

Out of the total number of species recorded, 59 (55.6%) have had their conservation statuses assessed on at least one geographic scale. At the global level, one species was evaluated as Endangered (Epinephelus marginatus), two species were considered Vulnerable (Hyporthodus niveatus and Lutjanus analis) and 12 were considered to be of Least Concern (Table 1). Regional and national assessments have adopted other categories in addition to those provided by the IUCN. At the national level (on the Brazilian list), eight species were considered Overexploited (Table 1), whereas in the São Paulo state list, ten species were evaluated as Needing Management Actions, 17 were considered to be Near Threatened, and 27 were categorized as Data Deficient (Table 1). There is particular concern over the fact that 11 of the most frequently captured species are considered “Overexploited” (Macrodon atricauda, Micropogonias furnieri, Genidens barbus) or “Near Threatened” (Bagre marinus, Paralonchurus brasiliensis, Cynosciun virescens, Cynoscion jamaicencis, Paralonchurus brasiliensis, Menticirrhus americanus, Menticirrhus littoralis, Paralonchurus brasiliensis), reinforcing the importance of assessment programs and management actions for these fisheries.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the fishermen of Itanhaém for their collaboration with PROJETO CACÃO, for their friendship, and for their permission to examine all fish specimens landed, and to grant # 1999/04085-1, São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and the Brazilian Council for Scientific Research (CNPq) for the grants to F. S. Motta and O. B. F. Gadig, respectively. The authors are also grateful to reviewers for comments that greatly improved the manuscript.

References

Publication Dates

History