Dataset Information

Fishers and groupers (Epinephelus marginatus and E. morio) in the coast of Brazil: integrating information for conservation.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Groupers are a vulnerable but economically important group of fish, especially for small-scale fisheries. We investigated catches and local ecological knowledge (LEK) of diet, habitat, and past fishing experiences. METHODS:Landings, prices, interviews, and restaurants demand for two species, Epinephelus marginatus (dusky grouper) and Epinephelus morio (red grouper), were registered. RESULTS:We visited 74 markets and 79 sites on the coast of Brazil in 2017-2018, and we interviewed 71 fishers: Bahia (NE), Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (SE), and Santa Catarina (S). The landings sampled of dusky grouper (2016-2017) in Rio de Janeiro were: n?=?222, size 38-109?cm, weight 1-24?kg, average 3.84?kg; in São Paulo, São Sebastião were: n?=?47, size 39-106?cm, weight 2-8?kg, average of 2.77?kg; and at Santos: n?=?80, 26-120?cm, weight 0.36-15?kg, average 2.72?kg. Red grouper was observed in markets in the northeastern Brazil. We did not observe Epinephelus marginatus from Bahia northward; a maximum size of 200?cm was reported south of the Bahia, besides Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo coasts, 20?years ago (or longer) by 12 fishers. Local knowledge of fishers was important for grouper data of habitat and diet; the reproduction period was identified by fishers as September to March. CONCLUSIONS:Groupers can be considered as a cultural and ecological keystone species. We suggest protective measures: 1) fishing zoning, 2) islands (MPAs) with the surveillance of fishers, 3) late Spring and early Summer as key periods for management (grouper reproduction), 4) studies on grouper larvae, 5) mapping of fishing spots, 6) studies on local knowledge. Collaboration with small-scale fishers and local knowledge could contribute to low-conflict management measures. In that regard, integrative models of management from Latin America, by using local knowledge and citizen science, could produce successful grouper management for Brazilian data-poor fisheries, a contrasting reality to the Mediterranean areas. Finally, the distribution of E. marginatus in Brazil leave us with questions: a) Have dusky groupers disappeared from Bahia because of a decline in the population? b) Was it uncommon in Northeast Brazil? c) Did changes in water temperatures forced a movement southward?

SUBMITTER: Begossi A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6836445 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Fishers and groupers (Epinephelus marginatus and E. morio) in the coast of Brazil: integrating information for conservation.

Begossi Alpina A Salyvonchyk Svetlana S Glamuzina Branko B de Souza Shirley Pacheco SP Lopes Priscila F M PFM Priolli Regina H G RHG do Prado Djalma Osmanir DO Ramires Milena M Clauzet Mariana M Zapelini Cleverson C Schneider Daiana T DT Silva Luis T LT Silvano Renato A M RAM

Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 20191106 1

<h4>Background</h4>Groupers are a vulnerable but economically important group of fish, especially for small-scale fisheries. We investigated catches and local ecological knowledge (LEK) of diet, habitat, and past fishing experiences.<h4>Methods</h4>Landings, prices, interviews, and restaurants demand for two species, Epinephelus marginatus (dusky grouper) and Epinephelus morio (red grouper), were registered.<h4>Results</h4>We visited 74 markets and 79 sites on the coast of Brazil in 2017-2018, a ...[more]

PMID: 31694660

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Project description:BackgroundAlthough fishers' knowledge has been recently considered into management programmes, there is still the need to establish a better understanding of fishers' perceptions and cognition. Fishers can provide novel information on the biology and ecology of species, which can potentially be used in the management of fisheries. The knowledge fishers have and how they classify nature is empirically based. It is common, for example, to observe that fishers' taxonomy is often represented by the generic level, one of the hierarchical categories of folk classification that is somewhat analogous to the Linnean genus, as it groups organisms of a higher rank than the folk species.In this study we compiled the knowledge fishers have on local fish, such as their folk names, diet and habitat.MethodsFive coastal communities widely distributed along the Brazilian coast were studied: two from the northeast (Porto Sauípe and Itacimirim, in Bahia State, n of interviewees?=?34), two from the southeast (Itaipu at Niterói and Copacabana at Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro State, n?=?35) and one from the south coast (Pântano do Sul, in Santa Catarina State, n?=?23). Fish pictures were randomly ordered and the same order was presented to all interviewees (n?=?92), when they were then asked about the species name and classification and its habitat and diet preferences.ResultsFishers make clusters of fish species, usually hierarchically; fishers of the coast of Brazil use mostly primary lexemes (generic names) to name fish; and fishers did not differentiate between scientific species, since the same folk generic name included two different scientific species. Fishers provide information on species to which there is scarce or no information on diet and habitat, such as Rhinobatos percellens (chola guitarfish, arraia viola or cação viola), Sphoeroides dorsalis (marbled puffer, baiacu), Mycteroperca acutirostris (comb grouper, badejo) and Dasyatis guttata (longnose stingray, arraia, arraia manteiga).Conclusionsfishers' knowledge on fish diet and fish habitat can be strategic to management, since their knowledge concentrates on the fishery target species, which are the ones under higher fishing pressure. Besides, fishers showed to have knowledge on species still poorly known to science.

Project description:Groupers (Epinephelidae) are ecologically, commercially, and culturally important predatory fishes throughout their global distribution range in tropical, subtropical and occasionally temperate regions. They are key species for modern and ancient fisheries in the Mediterranean which have been heavily overfished in the past century leading to smaller catch sizes, lower CPUE, and decreased biomass. There are four species of grouper native to the Mediterranean within the Epinephelus genus.The abundance and distribution of grouper species prior to the 20th century in the Mediterranean remains poorly known. Using peptide mass fingerprinting, also known as Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS), we investigated if ZooMS is a viable method for identifying intra-genus grouper bones to species level. Due to the lack of publicly available genomic sequences and for validation of ZooMS markers, we reconstructed collagen type I amino acid sequences using LC-MS/MS for four Epinephelus spp. Adequate variation between collagen sequences enabled the production of the best supported phylogenetic tree for Mediterranean Epinephelus spp. to date. We identified 23 previously undescribed ZooMS biomarkers capable of distinguishing groupers to the species level. Our novel biomarkers were applied to a case study of 23 grouper/comber fish bones from the Middle to Late Holocene archaeological site of Kinet Höyük, located along the coast of Iskenderun Bay, Turkey. ZooMS markers enabled species level identification of 19 bones with 18 identified as Epinephelus aeneus and 1 identified as Epinephelus marginatus. Combining ZooMS identifications with catch size reconstructions has revealed that E. aeneus is capable of growing ca. 30 cm larger than previously reported. This abundance and dominance of E. aeneus locally at Kinet Höyük is consistent with E. aeneus being the most prevalent grouper species in Iskenderun Bay today, testifying to several millennia of this species local population persistence despite fishing pressure, habitat degradation, and climatic changes.

Dataset Information

Fishers and groupers (Epinephelus marginatus and E. morio) in the coast of Brazil: integrating information for conservation.

Publications

Fishers and groupers (Epinephelus marginatus and E. morio) in the coast of Brazil: integrating information for conservation.

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