693
the Western Atlantic may be facing similar threats at environmental, social and
political levels and; a second one that they are still in conditions of regain control of
their resilience patterns and recover from decades of disregard. As common threats
to be tackled would be basic sanitation, surrounding land use, flow regulation and
empowerment of protected areas management. All these actions are somewhat displaced from the reach of fisheries management, but would greatly improve environmental quality and catch possibilities. The fact that the four systems appear to
remain productive, despite the lack of reliable and recent fisheries data, suggests
that conventional adjustments in fisheries practices, including full landing records
might already cause some improvement in managerial options that favour local
communities and might benefit commercial enterprise in the end.
Among the necessary actions that can be made at harbours of each estuarine
system would be fleet registration (boats, gears, crews and docking patterns), daily
record of total catch per day, details about most profitable catch (species, local of
capture, individual size and weight, maturation) and market pricing.
The financial and human resources investments to proceed with these collections
would be recompensed in fisheries productivity in a few years, if data could be
treated and management suggestions followed. Although some restrictions would
have to be implemented (no-take zones, gear regulation, size limits and seasonal
closures) at different time scales, only data gathering and treatment would base
decision on whether each environment is improving its fisheries production and
related general environmental quality.
Finally, fisheries at the Western Atlantic coast will never be ideal without continuous investments in scientific studies to conduct long-term fish stock assessments
and robust ecological information. The historical miscommunication between scientists and managers, and little efforts to onset the management of coastal wetlands
is proving an inconceivable burden for these environments, and artisanal and industrial fisheries will fall become non-profitability due to the collapse of overexploited
fish stocks. A large part of resources used worldwide is strictly from estuarine production. However, although environmental management can be consistently established, the current available information regarding estuarine fisheries do not allow
building fishery managements models that work on any timescale. What will be the
future impacts of fisheries and habitat loss on nursery services along the estuarine
ecocline? How resilient estuaries can be withstanding human modifications and climate changes? Will Western Atlantic fish stocks recover and overcome these pressures, or will they collapse? Without landing data that reflects estuarine ecology and
conditions, we simply don’t know.
Acknowledgements Authors acknowledge the financial support from Conselho Nacional de
Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) through grant Proc.405818/2012-2/COAGR/
PESCA; Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE) through grant APQ–
0911–108/12 and BFP-0130-1.08/15; the Fishers Association of Piaçabuçu (Z19) for the integrated work on fishery statistics; CODEVASF Fisheries Resources and Aquaculture Integrated
Centre of Betume, at Neópolis Sergipe State, for the local rainfall data. MB and MFC are CNPq
Fellows.
20 How Can Accurate Landing Stats Help in Designing Better Fisheries…
the Western Atlantic may be facing similar threats at environmental, social and
political levels and; a second one that they are still in conditions of regain control of
their resilience patterns and recover from decades of disregard. As common threats
to be tackled would be basic sanitation, surrounding land use, flow regulation and
empowerment of protected areas management. All these actions are somewhat displaced from the reach of fisheries management, but would greatly improve environmental quality and catch possibilities. The fact that the four systems appear to
remain productive, despite the lack of reliable and recent fisheries data, suggests
that conventional adjustments in fisheries practices, including full landing records
might already cause some improvement in managerial options that favour local
communities and might benefit commercial enterprise in the end.
Among the necessary actions that can be made at harbours of each estuarine
system would be fleet registration (boats, gears, crews and docking patterns), daily
record of total catch per day, details about most profitable catch (species, local of
capture, individual size and weight, maturation) and market pricing.
The financial and human resources investments to proceed with these collections
would be recompensed in fisheries productivity in a few years, if data could be
treated and management suggestions followed. Although some restrictions would
have to be implemented (no-take zones, gear regulation, size limits and seasonal
closures) at different time scales, only data gathering and treatment would base
decision on whether each environment is improving its fisheries production and
related general environmental quality.
Finally, fisheries at the Western Atlantic coast will never be ideal without continuous investments in scientific studies to conduct long-term fish stock assessments
and robust ecological information. The historical miscommunication between scientists and managers, and little efforts to onset the management of coastal wetlands
is proving an inconceivable burden for these environments, and artisanal and industrial fisheries will fall become non-profitability due to the collapse of overexploited
fish stocks. A large part of resources used worldwide is strictly from estuarine production. However, although environmental management can be consistently established, the current available information regarding estuarine fisheries do not allow
building fishery managements models that work on any timescale. What will be the
future impacts of fisheries and habitat loss on nursery services along the estuarine
ecocline? How resilient estuaries can be withstanding human modifications and climate changes? Will Western Atlantic fish stocks recover and overcome these pressures, or will they collapse? Without landing data that reflects estuarine ecology and
conditions, we simply don’t know.
Acknowledgements Authors acknowledge the financial support from Conselho Nacional de
Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) through grant Proc.405818/2012-2/COAGR/
PESCA; Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE) through grant APQ–
0911–108/12 and BFP-0130-1.08/15; the Fishers Association of Piaçabuçu (Z19) for the integrated work on fishery statistics; CODEVASF Fisheries Resources and Aquaculture Integrated
Centre of Betume, at Neópolis Sergipe State, for the local rainfall data. MB and MFC are CNPq
Fellows.
20 How Can Accurate Landing Stats Help in Designing Better Fisheries…