South Brazil Bight - Exploitation

Total landings in the South Brazil LME increased during the 1970s, peaking at 350,000 mt in 1985, but have decreased since then to about 124,000 mt. The South Brazil Bight contributes about half of Brazil’s commercial fisheries yield and supports important pelagic and demersal fisheries. Some stocks of the SSB has been declining and over-exploitation has been associated with high fishing effort levels, promoted by Government fishing incentive policies such as tax deductions for investment in fishing ventures and fuel, especially in the 1970s, (Valentini and Pezzuto, 2006; Abdallah and Sumaila, 2007). Bottom trawling across the relatively smooth, sandy-mud bottom was the main type of fishing activity. The main demersal stocks exploited in the region were the white-mouth croaker Micropogonias furnieri, king weakfish Macrodon ancylodon, weakfish Cynoscion jamaiscencis, triggerfish Balistes capriscus and the marine shrimps Xiphopenaeus kroyeri (seabob shrimp), Farfantepenaeus brasiliensis and F. paulensis (pink-shrimp). Moreover, the presence of small pelagic stocks (particularly sardines) led to the development of an important purse-seine fishery, especially since 1950. The sardine fishery catch dropped from 228,000 mt in 1973 to 17,000 mt in 2000, while the pink-shrimp trawl fishery declined from 16,629 mt in 1972 to 1,166 mt in 2001. Conversely, the pole-and-line based fishery for skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) increased during the 1980s as a consequence of the regional expansion of industrial fisheries offshore. Other fleets that operated in this region included longliners in oceanic zones and gillnetters in the shelf area. Overall, most fishing vessel operates in the shelf’s region, and those fisheries are presently multispecies/opportunists.