A pesca e o pescador de lagosta em setor do litoral oriental do Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

Spiny Lobsters, Caribbean lobster or Rock lobsters (Decapoda, Achelata, Palinuridae) are important resources and support one of the most profitable fisheries in the world. In Brazil, despite current management measures adopted, it is still a fully exploited marine resource and a number of factors contribute to this scenario. Difficulties are reflected in the rotation of standards for lobster fishing over 44 years (1967 to 2010 and non-monitoring of fisheries since 2010). Adding to this, fishing activity is carried out with non-legal paraphernalia such as nets and free diving, or compressors and "marambaias". The activity of diving in general with the aid compressors has made catches more accurate. But on the other hand, it presents greater risks to the fishers ‘life and health. Coastal reefs are found on the continental shelf of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil's northeastern coast. It is a place for diving that has rich biodiversity, and presents a young lobster population. This work was carried out in a perspective of an integrative approach between the fisherman and the diver fisher with a focus on three objectives. To make a historical reconstruction of fishing during the years 2001-2010, to describe the sociodemographic profile, risks and conflicts of the activity and to compare his knowledge on the bioecology of the lobster with the scientific knowledge. The fishery analysis was based on spreadsheets enabled by the Estatpesca, a software program developed by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Natural Resources (IBAMA) in Rio Grande do Norte. A structured and semi-structured questionnaire was applied in order to collect the subject´s socio-economic information (age, education, monthly income, etc.), their fishing strategies (such as type of dive and equipment use, active lobster fishing depth) and their knowledge of the rules on risks and conflict management. Other type of information was also collected related to their knowledge on food, trophic structure, reproduction and lobster life cycle. Statistical analysis was performed using the R (R Development Core Team 2012) software, considering 5% significance level (Zar 2010). Each type of analysis was computed separately to avoid computational and mathematical conflicts. The following statistical software packages were also used: "ca" package (Grenacre 1993, Nenadic & Greenacre 2007), stats (Shapiro-Wilk test, PCA, PCoA, Pearson correlation, Mann-Whitney test; R Development Core Team 2012) and 'car' (Levene Test; Fox & Weisberg 2011). With the GLM model, it was possible to observe that the capture, by weight was smaller with the use of the net, in relation to the compressor, dive and cages. Greater weight was also significantly larger for the large vessel in relation to small vessels. Analyzing the time scale, the highest production per year occurred in 2009 and 2010. As for the monthly fishery, independently of the year sampled, the month of August showed a larger catch. 53 lobster fisher-divers were interviewed. The great majority (89%) are over 30 years old and were born in the community of Rio do Fogo. Many fishers have not completed elementary school and are illiterate (58.5%). They recognized two major risks in this activity: those associated with diving and those due to noncompliance with the formal or informal rules of catching lobsters. The risks associated with diving with the use of the compressors were most cited (48%), some pointed out limb numbness, joint pain or mild bleeding as well as symptoms related to decompression sickness (DCS). The results indicate that fisher´s knowledge of the lobster bio-ecology does not depend on age or experience. There were no significant differences between those who dive longer and are older (Kendall's tau, p> 0.05). There was a high degree of similarity in knowledge on behalf of fishers and scientific literature regarding feeding, trophic structure and lobster habitation. Based on this study, three aspects should be considered: the need for a monitoring of this fishery, impacts caused by dive fishing on the reef communities, and the importance of considering the fisherman's knowledge about the bio-ecology of the lobster in the fishery management plans.