LOBSTER FISHING FROM THE CAJUEIRO-TOUROS/RN COMMUNITY: ECONOMIC AND SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
Craft lobster fishing. Productive chain. Social and environmental impacts. Lobster Export
In this year that the united nations organization has declared as the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, lobster fishing in Brazil reflects the negative impacts that the Covid 19 Pandemic is leaving around the world. In the case of Brazil, in 2019, the pre-pandemic period, lobster production was 3,026,463 kg, in 2020, during the pandemic, it presented a negative variation of 11.4%, producing 2,680,798 kg. A scenario far removed from the years 1980-2012 when the country occupied the 6th place in lobster production, and recently this scenario has significantly changed where the country has positioned itself well in the ranking of world lobster producers, only between 2013-2017 the Brazil has been in 2nd place, with an average production of 5,533 tons/year. It is considered that 90-95% of this fish is exported to approximately 21 countries on all continents. However, as a consequence of these advances, some problems have been observed, such as an 80% reduction in fish stocks over the last few years, and an increase in the fleet of vessels involved, totaling 2,900 vessels and an increase in the population of fishermen directly involved in the lobster production chain, number of 15,000 fishermen, of these the state Ceará has 8,300 registered fishermen. Therefore, the capture effort tends to increase and, together with these efforts, fishing gear has been one of the main material investments to guarantee the capture of lobster, triggering unprecedented socio-environmental impacts. Given this scenario, this search aims to analyze the economic and socio-environmental impacts of lobster fishing from the Cajueiro-Touros/RN community and the consequences of covid-19 in this activity, so we need to characterize the social and economic profile of lobster fishermen in Cashew community in Touros/RN; describe the productive chain of artisanal lobster fishing from the Cajueiro Touros/RN Community; describe the economic and socio-environmental impacts caused by the rampant use of gear and techniques used in artisanal lobster fishing; identify the social vulnerability of lobster fishermen facing the closed season (annual), oil spill and the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we chose to use bibliographic reviews,