251
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
M.R. Rossi-Santos, C.W. Finkl (eds.), Advances in Marine Vertebrate Research
in Latin America, Coastal Research Library 22,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56985-7_10
Chapter 10
Elasmobranchs Consumption in Brazil:
Impacts and Consequences
Hugo Bornatowski, Raul R. Braga, and Rodrigo P. Barreto
Abstract Commercial fisheries struggle to apply regulatory and legal mechanisms
that depend on reliable species-specific data, and the shark industry faces an even
greater obstacle to transparency with sellers changing product names to overcome
consumer resistance. Fraudulent representation or mislabeling of fish, including
sharks and rays, has been recorded in some countries. In Brazil, for instance, sharks
are sold as “cação” – a popular name attributed for any shark or ray species; however, according to consumer’s knowledge of a large city of southern Brazil, more
than 70% of them are often unaware that “cação” refers to sharks. Today, the
Brazilian market has a high interest in encouraging people to eat “cação” meat,
mainly because of their attractive prices. This raise a number of questions, mainly
in respect to the knowledge of people/consumers, as what are they eating, and why
the Brazilian meat market has grown so much in the last years.
10.1 Introduction
The Chondrichthyes, or cartilaginous fish (i.e sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras),
are among the oldest taxa of vertebrates and have survived on planet earth for over
400 million years, including 4 mass extinction events (Camhi et al. 1998; Musick
1999). It can be considered an evolutionary successful group because it has diverse
reproductive strategies (including parthenogenesis), ranging from planktivorous to
top predators, occupying practically all aquatic niches (Priede et al. 2006; Snelson
H. Bornatowski (*)
Centro de Estudos do Mar, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
e-mail: anequim.bio@gmail.com
R.R. Braga
LEC-Laboratório de Ecologia e Conservação/Universidade Federal do Paraná,
Curitiba, Brazil
R.P. Barreto
Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação da Biodiversidade Marinha do Sudeste e Sul do
Brasil (CEPSUL/ICMBio), Itajaí, Brazil
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
M.R. Rossi-Santos, C.W. Finkl (eds.), Advances in Marine Vertebrate Research
in Latin America, Coastal Research Library 22,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56985-7_10
Chapter 10
Elasmobranchs Consumption in Brazil:
Impacts and Consequences
Hugo Bornatowski, Raul R. Braga, and Rodrigo P. Barreto
Abstract Commercial fisheries struggle to apply regulatory and legal mechanisms
that depend on reliable species-specific data, and the shark industry faces an even
greater obstacle to transparency with sellers changing product names to overcome
consumer resistance. Fraudulent representation or mislabeling of fish, including
sharks and rays, has been recorded in some countries. In Brazil, for instance, sharks
are sold as “cação” – a popular name attributed for any shark or ray species; however, according to consumer’s knowledge of a large city of southern Brazil, more
than 70% of them are often unaware that “cação” refers to sharks. Today, the
Brazilian market has a high interest in encouraging people to eat “cação” meat,
mainly because of their attractive prices. This raise a number of questions, mainly
in respect to the knowledge of people/consumers, as what are they eating, and why
the Brazilian meat market has grown so much in the last years.
10.1 Introduction
The Chondrichthyes, or cartilaginous fish (i.e sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras),
are among the oldest taxa of vertebrates and have survived on planet earth for over
400 million years, including 4 mass extinction events (Camhi et al. 1998; Musick
1999). It can be considered an evolutionary successful group because it has diverse
reproductive strategies (including parthenogenesis), ranging from planktivorous to
top predators, occupying practically all aquatic niches (Priede et al. 2006; Snelson
H. Bornatowski (*)
Centro de Estudos do Mar, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil
e-mail: anequim.bio@gmail.com
R.R. Braga
LEC-Laboratório de Ecologia e Conservação/Universidade Federal do Paraná,
Curitiba, Brazil
R.P. Barreto
Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação da Biodiversidade Marinha do Sudeste e Sul do
Brasil (CEPSUL/ICMBio), Itajaí, Brazil