Capacidade de carga de pesca esportiva no rio Água Boa do Univini na região do baixo rio Branco - Roraima - Brasil

Abstract

The concept of load capacity arises in the areas of Ecology, in pasture management, in the 1930s in the United States of America, as recreational use. Later it was used in the field of tourism planning with J. Alan Hagar in his publication in 1964 entitled The Carrying Capacity of Wild Lands for Recreation where it defines the level of use that an area can support without affecting its quality, applied in the management of visitors in parks and reserves. Fishing has become an important recreational activity for people around the world, contributing to the economies of several countries, generating billions of dollars. In Brazil the expansion of amateur fishing occurred in the 1990s, initially in the Pantanal and today throughout the country. In the Amazon they occur in the rivers of black water, in Roraima on the Água Boa do Univini river, due to the presence of large tucunarés (Cichla spp.). Considering that the establishment of a maximum limit of sport fishermen is an element that can help in the management of fishing, the present study applied the method developed by Cifuentes et al. (1992) adapted to the aquatic environment, to estimate the load capacity of the sport fishing practiced on the Água Boa River of Univini, the influence of conservation units as a source of replacement for the stocks of tucunarés and the profile of practicing tourists in the area of study. For that, experiments were carried out during the period of the sport fishing season of the state of Roraima between October 2018 and March 2019 on the Água Boa do Univini river, a tributary of the right bank of the Branco river, in the two projects located in the river. For the determination of the physical load capacity was found the result of 45 motorized fishing boats used in the river simultaneously by the two enterprises. The actual and effective cargo capacities obtained the same levels of physical cargo capacity, which were 12 boats simultaneously fishing in the river. When comparing the suggested limits with the current rates of sport fishermen, it is verified that the load capacity is within the acceptable for the practice of sport fishing in the Água Boa do Univini river. Influence of UC on fish caught in fishing grounds. The tucunaré açu had an average size of 53 to 85 cm, the paca 35 to 62 cm, the taua with 10 to 35 cm and the butterfly with 30 to 40 cm. In relation to the weight of the four species, Açu average weight of 3.5 to 6.5 kg, paca 2.0 to 5.0 kg, tauá 0.4 to 1.8 kg and butterfly 1.0 to 1.8 kg. The number of fish, 4 fish captured, large paca 25 medium to large, tauá 10 fish and butterfly in larger quantity with 78 fish. A questionnaire was applied to national and foreign sport fishermen and fishing guides as an exploratory research instrument with a quantitative and qualitative approach, the results show a range of age ranging from 30 to 90 years, being 80% male and 20% female, 85% are married and 70% have a college degree, have an income of more than 10 minimum salaries and work in various professions, fish monthly and every six months. The fishing guides have a wide experience in the function, ranging from 10 to 22 years of work in the area. The identification of the great potential of sports fishing tourism should be verified, provided that measures are taken of zoning strategies of fishing areas and definition of cargoes of exploitation by the embedded sport fishing.