Updated status of "turn right" traditional fishing systems in Arraial do Cabo and Itaipu (RJ Brazil)

L. LOTO; R. LOBÃO; A. CINTI; C. MONTEIRO NETO

Merida

Congreso; 2nd World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress.; 2014

TBT Network

In two beaches on the coast of Rio de Janeiro State (Brazil): Itaipu, in Niterói, and Praia Grande, in Arraial do Cabo, the traditional rule systems called Corrida de Canoa or Direito à Vez ("turn rights systems") exists since the 1950s to regulate access and use in beach seining artisanal fisheries. These traditional systems regulated competition among different fishing teams or companhas for catching incoming fish schools. In both locations, the existence of these systems set the basis for the recent creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the form of Reservas Extrativistas Marinhas, a type of MPA that grants exclusive access to marine resources inside the reserve to local traditional populations. In this communication we describe these traditional systems, their justifications, and local representations. We also describe their trajectory as a function of observed changes in the way that fish schools approach these coasts, which, to some extent, are representative of the construction of local fishermen identity. Additionally, we present some indicators and evidences suggesting that the substitution of local rules by official management documents, such as management plans or Planos de Manejo, affects not only the forms of local organization, but also the ways in which these groups interact with the market, politics, institutions regulating fishing and environmental activities, and especially with the social systems in which they are embedded.