As pescarias costeiras em áreas de reprodução de tartarugas marinhas no nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

Incidental capture in fishing gear (also known as bycatch) is considered one of the greatest threats to sea turtles. In order to identify overlaps between fishing areas and sea turtle habitats for Lepidochelys olivacea, Caretta caretta and Eretmochelys imbricata, a marine monitoring program, called “Assombração” was conducted, covering an area that extends from the southern coast of Alagoas to the northern coast of Bahia, from September 2010 to June 2013. All fishing vessels sighted were registered and fishermen were interviewed through semi-structured questionnaires. Additionally, from October 2010 to June 2012, voluntary logbooks were used by the shrimp trawl fleet, based in Pirambu, to monitor sea turtle bycatch. The main fishing activities registered in the area were shrimp trawling (56%), hook-and-line (28%), gillnets (12%) and other types of gear, representing a relatively smaller percentage (4%). Trawling fisheries, prevailing in southern Alagoas, extending across the entire coastline of Sergipe, overlapped considerably with L. olivacea habitats.The hook-and-line fishing, which was registered along 380 km of the study area showed partial overlap with C. Caretta areas, on the northern coast of Bahia. Gillnet fishing, which usually takes place in coastal waters, showed reduced overlap with areas of occurrence of the three species from this study. The present study estimates that the trawl fleet operating in the study area (168 vessels) captures an amount of 624-1640 turtles annually, given the overlap of fisheries and sea turtle habitats, as well as other evidence linking sea turtle mortality to fishing. In order to reduce se turtle bycatch, the following measures are recommended: 1) Establishment of seasonal closure periods from November to January, as well as the reduction in the exclusion zone along the continental shelf associated with San Francisco and Japaratuba submarine canyons. The effectiveness of such measures depend directly on bycatch minitoring, enforcement, as well as on the continuous assessment of shrimp biological parameters, which are the target species for trawling.