Brazil’s Amazon River region’s managed fisheries system is helping save endangered fish.
The fish is pirarucu. Also known as arapaima in Brazil. Pirarucu is believed to be the largest of her 2,300 species of fish known to live in the Amazon basin. It can reach 3m in length and 200kg in weight.
The fish lives mainly in lakes in large areas of the Brazilian Amazon. they are carnivores. In other words, it eats other fish.
The pirarucu is considered endangered due to overfishing. Due to illegal fishing activities, many communities struggle to find fish, a traditionally important food.
However, poaching of pirarucu has decreased sharply in recent years. And the fish are recovering more and more. The Associated Press (AP) reports that efforts, including close collaboration between communities and complexes, have resulted in improvements. logistics.
One of the unusual things about pirarucu is that they need to breathe air to survive. Fish should breathe at least once every 20 minutes. They rise to the surface to do so.
The behavior of this fish makes it easy to count how many pirarucu are active in the area. Fish counting is now done once a year by fishermen trained to use this method. By law, only 30% of his pirarucu in a given area are caught in the following year.
Pirarucu fishing now takes place once a year, around September when water levels are at their lowest.
Efforts have resulted in an increase in pirarucu populations in areas where pirarucu is used. In the San Raimundo area, when managed fishing began in 2011, he had 1,335 pirarucus in a nearby lake. Last year’s record was 4,092.
The number of pirarucu increased from 4,916 to 46,839 between 2011 and 2021 in the Karauari region.
Manoel Cunha leads a group of workers in the rubber trade in San Raimundo. He told the Associated Press that controlled fishing efforts have significantly reduced illegal fishing activity in the area. I’ve never seen a fishing boat before,” said Cunha. “There is no place for them here anymore.”
Cunha’s sister, Rosilda, said Pirarucu brings money to the community. “Our pirarucu is so delicious that everyone who eats it falls in love and wants more,” she said.
In the Amazon, fish are commonly salted, sun-dried, and sold at local markets. It is also exported to the United States and Mexico.
The processing of the fish is done by members of the Carauari Rural Producers Association known as Asprok. An organization formed by local rubber workers who wanted to be freed from slave-like working conditions.
The organization allows community members to share in the profits of the fish harvest.
Asproc currently runs a variety of programs ranging from waste management to community markets to higher education. The organization sells pirarucu to major Brazilian cities, including São Paulo and Brasilia. This is a complex process, taking several days by ship or overland, and up to two weeks for him.
Asproc has partnerships with two US government agencies, the US Forest Service and the Agency for International Development (USAID). Both have supported managed fishing and processing operations in the region.
“This project Individual We need a strong governance structure,” said Ted Gehr, USAID Mission Director for Brazil. “Everyone agrees that we may have to Sacrifice We can’t fish all the pirarucu available, but we know that more pirarucu will breed and be more valuable in the long run,” Gale added.
I’m Brian Lynn.
The Associated Press reported this story. Bryan Lynn edited the report for VOA Learning English.
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the words of this story
logistics –n. a practical arrangement and process for something
Individual –v. different from everyone and everything else
Sacrifice – n. something worth giving up in order to achieve something
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