Dynamics of the artisanal fishing activity in two communities on the south coast of Brazil

Abstract

The seasonality in the occurrence of fishing resources can originate a surprising diversity of procedures and gears used by communities of artisanal fishermen. This work describes the routine of two communities in the bordering littoral region of the Santa Catarina and Paraná States. The work was performed from April 2002 to June 2003 in two communities of the municipal districts of Itapoá (SC) and Guaratuba (PR), and it consisted by interviews, direct observations about the fleet and monthly accompaniments of the landings. The fleet of both communities is composed predominantly by wooden canoes. The departure to the sea for daily activities of fishing usually occurs at dawn, and the return, around five hours later. Four main modalities of fishing are used along the year, all performed at open sea. The anchored gillnet is the most frequent, just overcome í  in the summer - by the bottom trawl. In the anchored gillnet, the mesh sizes 7; 11; and 16 cm (stretched mesh) are the most representative. Both communities have own annual cyclic characteristics regarding the practiced modality, resulting in a scenery of heterogeneous temporal exploration of the environment. Differences in the exploration form of the environment during the same period can be mostly explained by cultural and logistic differences between Barra do Saí­­ and Brejatuba, fact that leads to the idea of resources spontaneous division by the fishermen communities.