Artisanal fisher traditional knowledge and perceptions about small cetaceans’ bycatch in North Brazil

Resumen

Interactions between small cetaceans and artisanal fisheries have been recorded worldwide; Among the negative interactions is the bycatch. Fishers, as stakeholders in direct contact with the capture processes, can play a role in sharing/applying their knowledge. The study aimed to carry out a search on the bycatch of small cetaceans on the coast of Pará, North Brazil, using the Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) from artisanal fishers as a data source, associating it with georeferenced bycatch photos and local descriptive analysis. Among the main findings, it was possible to detect that dolphin’s bycatch was mentioned by all fishers, and gillnet was the main tool. According to the photos, all the animals belong to the species Sotalia guianensis. Fishers reported disposing of bycaught dolphin carcasses directly on the sea, however, some claimed to sell them in the local market for religious, mystic-medicinal purposes. Fishers consider the protection of cetaceans to be essential but do not consider bycatch to be harmful to the environment, they see the dolphins as charismatic animals, sometimes humanizing their acts and interactions. An opportunity for future responses lay in the fishers’ willingness to cooperate in reducing bycatch.