Ethnooceanography of tides in the artisanal fishery in Southeastern Brazil: Use of traditional knowledge on the elaboration of the strategies for artisanal fishery

Abstract

Ethnooceanographic knowledge is traditionally used by artisanal fishermen in daily fishing practice. In this sense, the aim of the present study is to characterize the ethnoclassification of the tides from the use of etnhooceanographic knowledge of artisanal fishermen who work at Farol de São Thomé Port, in the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, Northern RJ. Between October and November 2016, we made participant and direct observations with records of information in the field diary and 80 ethnographic interviews were applied, guided by a semi-structured questionnaire to the local fishermen. The results were analyzed by application of Analysis of Discourse and comparison using the Triangulation method and descriptive statistics. The tides were classified into eight groups according to ethnooceanographic knowledge: ‘big tides'; ‘dead tides'; ‘launch tides'; ‘breaking tides'; ‘full tide’; ‘dried tide’; ‘pardo tide’ and ‘padejar tide’. The construction of this knowledge by artisanal fishermen takes place over generations and guarantees the success of fishing. However there are no studies or initiatives in the region that value the importance of this knowledge to carry out the fishing and other marine activities. Seventy fishermen interviewed (87,5%) described that they were never questioned by researchers or managers about their ethnooceanography knowledge. Ethnooceanographic knowledge allows to the artisanal fishermen to select more suited fishery artifacts according to moon phases, adapting fishery days to oceanographic conditions. This knowledge is important because it can assure the survival of artisanal fishermen in the sea, as well as allowing an increase in fishery production, which consequently contributes to the maintenance of the activity.