Na lida, em silêncio e na (in)visibilidade : as pescadoras artesanais de camarão do Rio Solimões/Amazonas

Abstract

Artisanal shrimp fishing (Macrobrachium amazonicum) is practiced by the majority of women in several riverside communities along the Solimões/Amazonas river channel, and is part of the Varzeiro Amazon way of life. Our research identified 11 (eleven) shrimp fishing municipalities in Amazonas, among which we defined 04 (four) as our study area - Careiro da Várzea, Iranduba, Itacoatiara and Manacapuru. In these research sites, we detected 11 (eleven) crustacean fishing communities and interviewed 26 (twenty-six) female fishermen from 10 (ten) communities. This fishing represents one of the main sources of income for fisherwomen’s families, and is carried out during the low-water period, from August to October. Our objective with the investigation is to give visibility and contribute to the process of recognizing the work of these artisanal women fishermen, expanding and deepening knowledge about the work they carry out with this type of fishing. The methodology used was qualitative in nature. We carried out a bibliographical study, we used direct observation, we carried out structured and semi-structured interviews, we talked to the fisherwomen individually and in groups. We recorded our meetings and some of the various activities that fisherwomen carry out through filming and photographic images, in addition to marking points to create maps of the communities where we were present. The data were analyzed based on a social and historical perspective, in a continuous and complex process, requiring us to take a reflective, critical and permanent stance in the search for meanings and connections to the data studied. Our analyzes reflect the social and historical moment in which they were carried out. Fisherwomen carry out work in the shrimp fishing process, from preparing the bait to its commercialization, but most of them do not have the General Fisheries Registry (RGP) and, consequently, do not have access to the Artisanal Fisherman’s Defeso Insurance Program (PSDPA). Shrimp fishing is not an issue for discussion, nor is there any type of document that formally proves its existence, both in government institutions and in entities representing the fishing category, Colonies, Unions and Associations. Our research considers that the lack of records makes it invisible and contributes to the lack of recognition of the specificity of this type of Amazonian fishing work, of the artisanal fisherwomen who carry out this activity and of the economy that is generated around this practice. and economy. Our study also points to the socio-environmental vulnerability of women fishermen and the natural fishing resource they work with, shrimp, since both do not have specific protective policies, as for the State they do not formally exist. Women’s participation in political spaces of fishing representation is marked by silence surrounding shrimp fishing and patriarchy. In these spaces, kinship relationships in command of the entities are also observed. We did not even identify a movement of shrimp fishermen around the search for their rights.