Deep-water fisheries in Brazil: history, status and perspectives

The recent development of deep-water fisheries off Brazil is reviewed from biological, economic, and political perspectives. This process has been centered in the southeastern and southern sectors of the Brazilian coast (19 degrees-34 degrees S) and was motivated by the overfishing of the main coastal resources and a government-induced vessel-chartering program. Shelf break (100-250 m) operations by national hook-and-line and trawl vessels intensified in the 1990s. Around 2000-2001, however, foreign-chartered longliners, gillnetters, potters, and trawlers started to operate in Brazilian waters, leading the occupation of the upper slope (250500 m), mostly targeting monkfish (Lophyus gastrophysus), the Argentine hake (Merluccius hubbsi), the Brazilian codling (Urophycis mystacea), the wreckfish (Polyprion americanus), the Argentine short-fin squid (Illex argentinus), the red crab (Chaceon notialis), and the royal crab (Chaceon ramosae). Between 2004 and 2007, chartered trawlers established a valuable fishery on deep-water shrimps (family Aristeidae), heavily exploiting the lower slope (500-1000 m). Total catches of deep-water resources varied annually from 5,756 ton in 2000 to a maximum of 19,923 ton in 2002, decreasing to nearly 11,000 ton in 2006. Despite intensive data collection, the availability of timely stock assessments, and a formal participatory process for the discussion of management plans, deep-water stocks are already considered to be overexploited due to limitations of governance.