STUDY OF FISHERIES WITH FISH-WEIRS AT ARARUAMA LAGOON, RIO DE JANEIRO STATE, BRAZIL

Abstract

At Araruama Lagoon, Eastern coastal Rio de Janeiro State, the Brazilian region known as "Região dos Lagos", is very common the use of fish-weirs, locally called by the fishermen as "ganchos'' or "barragens". These are fishing gears constructed with fishing-nets fixed to lagoon bottom by wooden poles. These fishing gears were left by indigenous populations to europeans that firstly there established themselves to live from fisheries. The installation of these "gauchos" is made along beaches, and near channels, mainly in the area subjected to marine influence by tidal movement, In last years, an expressive increment on the number of the "gauchos" occurred, which spreaded by inadequate places. Because of this critical scenery and the perspective of' fishery resources exhaustion, was realized the survey of the owners of these gears with interviews, in order to collect information about technical aspects of fishery activity and socioeconomic characteristics of that fishermen community. The use of these fish-weirs have been transmitted from generation to generation. along decades. Depending on the type or net used, the shrimp (Penaeus brasiliensisI) and fishes, mainly the mullet (Mugil platanus), are captured with these bottom fixed fish-weirs. The results obtained offer insights into the management of this activity, after studied the possibilities of licensing or withdrawal of the fish-weirs from Araruama Lagoon.