Análise espacial e temporal dos encalhes de boto-cinza, Sotalia guianensis (van Bénéden, 1864) no estado do Ceará de 2006 a 2019: compreendendo ameaças e impactos sobre a espécie

Abstract

The Guiana dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) is a marine mammal that occurs from Nicaragua, in Central America, to southern Brazil, off the coast of Santa Catarina. In Ceará, the species occurs along the entire coast. It is classified as “Near Threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and “Vulnerable” by the Red List of Threatened Brazilian Fauna. The Guiana dolphin is the marine mammal that strands the most in Ceará. In this way, the present study analyzed the stranding events on the coast of Ceará, with the main objective of understanding the spatial patterns of strandings between the years 2006 to 2019. The data were provided by the NGO Aquasis, an institution that monitors and researches strandings of marine mammals in the State of Ceará since 1994. As a result, a total of 449 strandings were identified. It was possible to identify that most strandings occurred on the east coast (153) and that there were fewer strandings on the far west coast (77); also that the seasons that had the most strandings were spring (136) and winter seasons (137). In addition, it was noticed that the main Causa mortis of Sotalia guianensis, when it was possible to identify, was caused by anthropogenic actions, such as entanglement in fishing nets. These results indicate that there is an increasing urgency to preserve the species and that harmful actions can be mitigated.