Side by side: fishers and researches building marine conserva6on together 1,2Áthila Andrade Bertoncini, athilapeixe@gmail.com; 1,3Matheus Oliveira Freitas, serranidae@gmail.com; 1,4Beatrice Padovani Ferreira, beatrice@ufpe.br; 1,5Maurício HosHm-
Silva, mhosHm@gmail.com; 1Jonas Rodrigues Leite, jonasipaq@yahoo.com.br; 1,6Leonardo Schlögel Bueno, lecobueno@gmail.com; 1,7Maíra Borgonha, mairameros@gmail.com 1Meros do Brasil InsHtute; 2Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro; 3Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Ambiental UFPR; 4Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; 5Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo; 6InsHtuto COMAR; 7Universidade Federal Fluminense.
Introduction
Results
The AtlanHc goliath grouper, Epinephelus itajara (Lichtenstein 1822), is the largest bony reef fish in the western AtlanHc Ocean - can reach over 2m and weigh up to 400 kg - and is considered criHcally endangered throughout its range, from North Carolina to southern Brazil, and also along the African coast from Senegal to Congo.
Discussion
Since 2002, Meros do Brasil Project (www.merosdobrasil.org) has the goliath grouper, as the focus of its research interests. Since the species is threatened, as well as, the first fish species that has a moratorium in Brazil, the Project’s promotes invesHgaHon through three broad research themes: ü Biological research and conserva6on of the species: monitoring of catches and gathering of biological samples, mark-recapture inside estuaries and sea, geneHcs, aquaculture, interacHon with fisheries, conservaHon of associated environments, spawning aggregaHons and photo idenHficaHon; ü Environmental Management: arHculaHon with local knowledge from fisheries communiHes, insHtuHonal governance, public policy; ü Communica6on and environmental educa6on: insert of coastal communiHes in the project’s acHviHes, making goliath grouper as a conservaHon symbol of coastal environments.
Figure 1. Distribution, life-cycle and habitats of the goliath grouper.
The species forms seasonal reproducHve aggregaHons in shallow waters (<50 m), generally close to large estuarine areas. In Brazil, E. itajara are protected by a fishing moratorium set in place in 2002 and renewed for up to 2023. Illegal catches, however, conHnue besides polluHon and habitat degradaHon, which hinders stock recovery and reduces our ability to understand this process.
Figure 3. DESCRIPTION Figure 2. Goliath grouper in South Brazil.
The project works through a network of insHtuHons – government, NGOs, researchers, diver community and tradiHonal fishery communiHes – being present in nine of the 17 Brazilian coastal states. Our experiences have shown that both society and academia, through fishers and researchers, can join efforts and work together for a higher goal, aiming the sustainability of this resource for fisheries communiHes in a near future.
The monitoring of fishery landings is an important source of informaHon to assess the conservaHon status of the species. For more than a decade, the monitoring of incidental catches along the coast has been done in a partnership of researchers and arHsanal fishers in several Brazilian states. Sampling of longline fisheries (SC), tagging of juveniles inside estuarine areas (BA & ES), and trap fisheries inside estuaries (PE & BA) are some of the research acHviHes that had important collaboraHon of local fishers along these years. Such acHviHes provided achievements such as the implementaHon of public policies inside Marine Protected Areas of sustainable use, beside the naHonal moratoria for the goliath grouper. Figure 3. Field work activities with fishermen.
We aim to show the audience the experiences of Projeto Meros do Brasil and how society and academia, through fishers and researchers, can work together in order to promote the conservaHon of a large-sized-threatened grouper species, providing the possibility of sustainability of this resource for fisheries communiHes in a near future. Projeto Meros do Brasil shows that conservaHon cannot be built isolated, but with a concise network of collaborators, from government to fishers, providing important data for the assessment of the conservaHon status of a historically fisheries resource.