GEO Brasil - UNEP

the State of Fishing Resowrces:
Fish Extraction and Agua culture
the state of environment in Brazil
to get any indicative result of the presence of very large
stocks
Besides the potential for production, Brazil also possesses
a great market potential for aquicolous products Despite
this potential, Brazil’s participation in the world market has
been historically low, especially considering that it has 12
percent of all fresh water in the world, 35 million km 2 of
Exclusive Economic Zone, 8,400 km of coast, in addition to
favourable climate, diversity of aquatic species, internal and
external markets with unsatisfied demand, available support
infrastructure and other extremely favourable conditions
(Bernardino, 2001)
The greatest and most important fluvial basins in Brazil are
the Amazon, the Paraná, the São Francisco, the Northeastern
and the Eastern basins (Menezes, 1972; Paiva, 1983; Petrere,
1989) However, they still lack basic information on fish
philogenetic relations, and their reproduction, feeding and
growth habits The simple taxonomic description and
studies on life cycles have been limited to bigger and
commercially important species (Petrere, 1994) There are
few references to the fishery potential of continental waters
(for the Amazon basin, the estimate is from 425 to 1,500
thousands tonnes/year) (Petrere et al, 1992) In regard to
great hydroelectric dams, Paiva (1976) estimates that the
fishing potential of the 46 biggest Brazilian dams reaches
123,091 tonnes/year As to the northeastern reservoirs, the
potential estimated catches were 130,000 tonnes per year,
as a whole (Paiva, 1983)
Regarding aquaculture, this activity basically depends on
local ecosystems, which must be balanced in order to enable
this activity It is vital to understand that environmental
preservation is part of the productive process From this
point of view, the impact of aquaculture on ecosystems is
very important for the evaluation of its sustainability, for a
modified ecosystem reacts to the production system and
can directly affect its viability
In Brazil, aquaculture involves 98,557 producers, spread over
78,552 hectares (an average area of 080 hectares/property)
The average production is 146 tonnes/ha (Bernardino, op
cit) The heterogeneity of production systems turns global
average into a performance indicator that has little power to
explain the situation However, these data indicate that
Brazilian aquaculture, except for the carcinoculture sector,
is mainly supported by small producers Far from being a
problem, this fact can be faced as positive, since most great
producers of cultivated aquatic organisms in the world are
countries whose production is based on small properties
(Valenti, 2000)
As to the number of cultivated species, contrarily to what
happens in the main producing countries, where a reduced
number of species are cultivated, at least 62 species have
been commercially or experimentally used in Brazilian
aquaculture, including fish (51), crustaceans (5), clams (4),
amphibians (1) and seaweed (1) (Bernardino, op cit) On
the other hand, he continues, the generation and adaptation
of appropriate technology to the different cultivated species
demands complex observational and experimental work,
made up of inter-relations that must be studied in detail in
regard to all links of the productive chain This will only
occur through selection of the priority species, available
laboratory infrastructure, qualified human resources and
well managed regional aquaculture programmes
Brazil has the best comparative advantages of the world to
develop marine carcinoculture in a sustainable and
competitive form In 1997, the production reached 3,600
tonnes in an area of 3,548 hectares It came in 18 th among all
producing countries, participating with only 05 percent of
the world production In the year 2000, Brazilian production
reached 25,000 tonnes in a 6,250-hectare area, ie, a 594
percent increase in production compared to only 762
percent in area This happened over four years and led Brazil
to contribute with 31 percent of the world production,
occupying the 8th place in the world rank The northeastern
region is particularly productive In 1996, its productivity
was 906 kg/ha/year; in 2000, it reached 4,000 kg/ha/year; and
in 2001, some companies that are already using more
intensive technology are obtaining 8,000 to 10,000 kg/ha/
year productivity (Bernardino, op cit) It is important to
highlight the fact that this productivity is extremely high for
shrimp cultivation, even when comparing with the most
traditional producers This fast advance is a result of several
factors, such as the introduction, in 1993, of the white shrimp
(Litopenaeus vanamei), the production of high quality feeds,
the improvement of cultivation techniques, the improved
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