Ethno-oceanographic forecasts: do artisanal fisher’s knowledge interferes with boarding safety?

Abstract

Marine artisanal fishing is an activity that frequently exposes artisanal fishermen to the risk of death due to adverse meteooceanographic conditions. Therefore, it is urgent to formulate public policies to solve these problems. To minimize the risks, the fishermen, during their working days, make ethno-oceanographic observations that allow them to identifythe safe days to practice their activity. In this sense, the objective of this study is to understand the behavior of artisanal fishermen based on meteooceanographic conditions of waves (height and direction) and winds (intensity and direction), checking how these conditions interfere in the routine of artisanal fishing in the district of Farol de São Thomé, municipality of Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro state, southeastern Brazil. Between the months of June and August 2018, 80 interviews guided by a semistructured questionnaire were conducted, in addition to direct observation of the fishing community. Such forecasts were made available by the Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos of Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (CPTEC/INPE). The filed diary was used to register the number of moored boats, which allowed the evaluation of interference of the meteooceanographic conditions on fishing days. In the study region, there are 160 fishing vessels, according to the records of the Fishing Colony Z-19. On the day when the wave height varied from 0.6 m to 0.7 m, few vessels (7.5%; n = 12) were moored. When the wave height varied from 1.2 m to 2.1 m, many (70.6%; n = 113) vessels were moored, mainly smaller vessels (up to 10 m). In this way, ethno-oceanographic observations are decisive for the practice of fishing, because on days of adverse conditions, the activity is interrupted due to the greater risk of accidents. Therefore, ethno-oceanography influences the risk management that artisanal fishermen are submitted to during their working days.