Baía de Todos os Santos: ictiofauna, recursos pesqueiros e tendências de longo prazo em pescarias artesanais

Abstract

Todos os Santos Bay (TSB), like other estuarine and coastal ecosystems, is an area of protection, feeding and reproduction for various fish species, including those exploited by artisanal fisheries. In order to identify knowledge gaps in the studies, we carried out a bibliometric analysis based on a literature search in the databases and in the Curriculum Lattes of researchers who have carried out studies in the TSB. To survey the ichthyofauna occurring in the TSB, in addition to the available literature, we searched for records in scientific collections and classified their conservation status according to global, national and state assessments. To assess the occurrence of long-term changes in fisheries over the last 15 years in the TSB and the factors involved, we used catch data from Petrobras' participatory fishing activity monitoring project, available for the region from 2009 to 2023, of Diapterus spp. and Mugil spp. caught with encircling gillnets, and Caranx spp. caught by landmade bottom longline. The bibliometric analysis included 119 articles and two book chapters published between 1973 and 2022. A total of 6553 batches were collected from 11 scientific collections and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System of Brazil (OBIS-BR) database, and 414 species belonging to 33 orders and 96 families were recorded. The results of the temporal analysis revealed a high unexplained level of data in the fisheries analyzed. The decomposition of the time series showed an upward trend until 2015 in the catches of all categories analyzed, followed by an increase for Diapterus spp., a decline for Mugil spp., and a slight recovery for Caranx spp. The data showed two periods of decline in the catches analyzed: the first, between 2010 and 2013, and the second, between 2019 and 2020. The ichthyofauna of the TSB presented a great diversity of species, including endangered species. The changes observed in the catches of the fishing categories analyzed here are related to environmental changes in the bay and extreme events such as the oil spill and the COVID-19 pandemic, which directly impacted the consumption and marketing of fish resources exploited by artisanal fisheries. The results obtained here provide important input for the sustainable management of fishing resources and the conservation of biodiversity in the TSB.