Captura, transporte e quarentena de peixes marinhos tropicais de grande porte destinado a aquários públicos

Abstract

A public aquarium is built primarily to provide entertainment to the population, promote education about the importance of aquatic ecosystems, and assist in the conservation of species.The capture, transport and quarantine of fish are essential activities for these aquariums. In this thesis the hypothesis was assumed that it is possible to capture big tropical marine fish in traps for use in public exhibition aquariums. This thesis is divided in three chapters, where the first is the survey of the diversity of marine fish used in public aquariums in Brazil and other countries, this research was carried out in three different ways: (i) on-site visit; ii) research on institutional and dissemination sites; And (iii) e-mail contacts, social networks and telephone calls. In a sample formed by 04 aquariums that expose marine fish of the 12 currently in operation in Brazil (33.3%) and the Oceanário de Lisboa, a total of 353 fish species were identified. Of these, 230 were reported in Brazilian aquariums. The 22 species with the highest incidence, 13 occur naturally in Brazilian waters, indicating a high potential for use in public aquariums. The second chapter aimed to verify the diversity, richness, equity and abundance of the species caught in the fishing trap of Coconut tree Island, Acaraú-CE, Brazil, to know the potentiality of this fishing trap to obtain live fish for use in public aquariums. A total of 26 collections were carried out between October 2013 and October 2014, in which 1449 fish were counted and identified, divided into two classes, 10 orders, 34 families and 60 species. The results indicated a great diversity of species captured in this fishing gear. Knowing the species used in the exhibition aquariums and those captured in the fishing trapsThe third chapter aimed to carry out captures, transport and quarantine tests of tropical marine fish, which reach large size in adulthood, for use in public aquariums and are caught in fishing traps. The catches occurred on the Volta do Rio beach, Acaraú-CE, Brazil. To determine the potential of each species and their families, a Potential Index (PI), hich has been applied to the species identified in Chapter 2, thus, 47 species with potential for use in public exhibition aquariums were identified, of which 37 were classified as large species. Ten families with great potential were identified, namely: Acanthuridea, Serranidae, Carangidae, Pomacanthidae, Muraenidae, Ephippidae, Dasyatidae, Centropomidae, Haemulidae, Holocentridae e Lutjanidae. Two forms of catches were tested: selecting species and without species selection. For the catches selected by species, 131 animals of 10 species were captured separately, all presented relevant survival rates, and the species Holacanthus ciliaris, Caranx hippos and Megalops atlanticus obtained 100% survival. For the catches made without species selection, 131 animals from 21 different species were captured, this method proved inefficient, with high mortality rates and animals injured by high density management and by territorial behavior among animals of different species. During this step it is worth noting the capture of a shark of the species Carcharhinus limbatus, that presented easy adaptability to the confinement and presents / displays high commercial value in the market of animals for exhibition. With the present study we can conclude that the native species of large size, caught in fishing traps, present great potential for the fish market for 4 public exhibition aquariums, being an alternative of income generation for artisanal fishermen and an important source of information for the generation of knowledge and preservation of these species.