Mapeamento preliminar de áreas e pontos de pesca artesanal marinha no litoral do Estado do Ceará - Brasil

Abstract

Small-scale fishing is one of the main activities developed along the Brazilian coast. However, the lack of basic information about this activity hinders its management, compromising its sustainability. Among the states in the Northeast region of Brazil, Ceará has the third longest coastline, with great performance of small-scale fishing, typically artisanal. Thus, the mapping of artisanal fishing areas for planning purposes is one of the fundamental actions to promote a sustainable exploitation of the region’s resources and marine spatial planning. However, an integrated mapping of these areas is scarce in the literature. In this context, the objective of this work was to perform a preliminary mapping of artisanal fishing areas and points in the State of Ceará. The study area comprised the 23 coastal municipalities of Ceará, and to obtain and organize the data we adopted the division of the municipalities into four sectors. For the survey of information about the State of Ceará, consultations were made to documents and publications of SEMA and SEMACE, besides bibliographic research in scientific articles, theses, dissertations, and monographs to obtain mapping data. The information obtained was organized in spreadsheets and the maps were elaborated with the help of the QGIS software in version 3.16.16. Twenty-two areas and 110 fishing points were identified in the State of Ceará, being distributed along the extensive coast (573 km). As for the sectors, the East coast was the one that presented the greatest participation in the capture of lobster, mainly in Icapuí; Fortaleza and the Metropolitan Region was the region with the greatest number of artisanal fishing areas, located near Fortaleza; On the West Coast only two areas with fishing corrals were mapped in the cities of Trairi and Paracuru, but were registered 12 artisanal fishing points in Itapipoca and one in Paracuru; on the Far West Coast 30 artisanal fishing points were mapped, besides areas with fishing corrals and octopus fishing. The results obtained from this study are important to help evaluate and improve the fishing activity in Ceará, but it is still a preliminary approach that needs to be revised and expanded. Since there are gaps in the information about fishing areas and points for different municipalities, it is necessary to develop more detailed mapping, as well as studies to evaluate the implications of fishing with other coastal and maritime activities, like the ones done by ZEEC, by the Cientista-Chefe Meio Ambiente Program, among others.