A Pesca industrial da piramutaba na foz do rio Amazonas

Abstract

In Brazil, industrial fishing of the piramutaba catfish is performed at the estuary of the Amazon River, utilizing bottom-trawl nets as equipment. This fishing technique is considered potentially the most harmful to the environment and to biodiversity, due to the destruction of biomes and incidental capture of several species, called "bycatch." In order to characterize the species which compose the bycatch ichthyofauna of the piramutaba catfish, we analyzed 459 fishing trawlers between the years of 2002 and 2008. The results revealed that the bycatch ichthyofauna of the piramutaba consists of 38 species, divided in 30 genera and 17 families. The piramutaba was confirmed as the main species, consisting of 76% of the overall product, and the dourada fish as the main bycatch species, consisting of 7.05% of the product. We have recorded the incidence of Mero fish {Epinephelus itajara), which can be found in the IUCN list of critically endangered species. Statistical analysis showed that there is no significant difference between the average of the proportionality coefficients for bycatch capture (I/P) between the years in question (p<0.0001), the same conclusion found regarding the dourada fish (p = 0.0363).