Ecological and conservation aspects of bycatch fishes: An evaluation of shrimp fisheries impacts in Northeastern Brazil

• Published in: Brazilian journal of oceanography Vol. 67; p. 1
• Main Authors: Passarone, Rafaela, Aparecido, Kátia Cristina, Eduardo, Leandro Nolé, Lira, Alex Souza, Silva, Lucas Vinícius Santos, Justino, Anne K. S., Craveiro, Cecília, Silva, Emanuell F., Lucena-Frédou, Flávia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sao Paulo Universidade de Sao Paulo 01-01-2019; Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto Oceanográfico; Universidade de São Paulo
• Subjects: Artisanal fisheries; Beach seines; Biodiversity and Ecology; Boats; Body condition; Bycatch; Conservation; Decapoda; Economic importance; Economics; Ecosystem management; Endangered species; Environmental Sciences; Fish; Fisheries; Guilds; Juveniles; Length-weight relationships; Man-induced effects; MARINE & FRESHWATER BIOLOGY; Marine crustaceans; Mitigation; Mortality causes; OCEANOGRAPHY; Populations; Rare species; Seine nets; Shellfish; Shrimp fisheries; Statistical methods; Stock assessment; Trawling; Weight; Wildlife conservation; Brazil; caraguatatuba bay; temporal distribution; trophic organization; population biology; reproductive-biology; life-history; tropical bight; macrodon-ancylodon; ACL; continental-shelf; length-weight relationships
• ISSN: 1679-8759; 1982-436X; 1982-436X
• DOI: 10.1590/s1679-87592019029106713

Fishes accidentally caught, commonly known as by-catch, usually have no economic importance and are not reported in official statistics, being frequently discarded at sea. This bycatch contributes to alterations in the ecosystem, decline of populations, catch of juveniles and endangered species, threatening many marine populations. Despite significant efforts carried out towards the mitigation of the bycatch, basic biological information is lacking for many non-target species, hampering the assessment of the real impact of this incidental catch and application of sustainable management actions in an ecosystem viewpoint. Length-weight relationships (LWR) may be used to infer body condition indices, to estimate the fish weight from a known length and vice versa and is often used as an input parameter in stock assessment and ecological modeling. In the Northeastern of Brazil, the shrimp fisheries are predominantly artisanal, carried out mainly by motorized artisanal trawling boats and, in some cases, beach seine nets. Here, a study that examines the size at first maturity, conservation status, and trophic and functional guilds of thirty-three fishes captured incidentally in a shrimp fishery in Northeast Brazil is examined.