FAO.org

In Brazilian northern region, shrimp fishing (mainly pink shrimp, Penaeus subtilis) is done mainly by an industrial trawling fleet, of close to 100 boats (20m to 60 m LOA), which operates from Tutóia, Maranhão, to the Brazilian border with French Guiana, at depths ranging from 20 to over 60 m. The bycatch in this fishery is significant, including some rare and endangered species. The development of the REBYC II project in this pilot site is, therefore, of great importance to improve sustainability and thus to preserve the future of this fishing activity, that has a great socioeconomic importance. In Pará state (Brazil), two types of BRDs are being tested to reduce the catch of non-target species, which includes small fish and invertebrates such as squid, fish, sea urchins among other organisms, are common in this form of fishing.

The initial tests carried out between February 15 and March 21, kept shrimp catches at the same level, while decreasing the catch of small fish species and other species of no economic value by about 40% that. At least four more testing campaigns are planned to happen in the second half of 2019 and the first half of 2020. Each field test takes about 30 days at sea, which is the average time of a commercial fishing trip of the industrial shrimp fisheries in the region. The researchers involved are professors from the Federal University of Pará and Federal Rural University of Amazonia, with the support from students of the Fisheries Engineering, Oceanography and Biological Sciences courses of these two institutions, as well as from ICMBio.