Caribbean red snapper fishing performance indicators in Brazilian amazon shelf: Is it the beginning of the end of a fishing system?

PLoS One. 2024 May 1;19(5):e0300820. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300820. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Red snapper fishing (Lutjanus purpureus) is an important fishing activity for the Brazilian economy due to its export. The scarcity of up-to-date information on this system's ecology, economy, and social characteristics contributes to inefficient management. We analyze whether the commercial snapper fishery on the Amazon continental shelf is socioecologically sustainable. For this, an assessment tool was used that can be applied to fishing systems with little data, the Fisheries Performance Indicators (FPI). The results showed that the critical points of this activity are mainly related to the Ecological indicator (2.3) and the Economic indicator (2.8). The best indicator was the Community (3.8). The problems that put at risk the permanence of the activity and its maintenance are: (i) fishing for juveniles; (ii) illegal vessels; (iii) lack of collaboration of the fishing sector with science, and (iv) unreliability of data supplied. All the points mentioned make the snapper fishery on the north coast of Brazil socio-ecologically unsustainable in the long term.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brazil
  • Caribbean Region
  • Conservation of Natural Resources* / methods
  • Ecosystem
  • Fisheries* / economics
  • Fishes
  • Perciformes / physiology

Grants and funding

This research had logistical support from the Center for Aquatic Ecology and Fisheries of the Federal University of Pará and financial support from the FIP Pargo and the National Research Council (CNPq) through the REPENSAPESCA project. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or manuscript preparation.