Interdisciplinary assessment of the status quo of the marine fishery systems in the state of Espirito Santo, Brazil, using Rapfish

The aim of the present study was to carry out a comparative analysis of fishery systems in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil (western coast of South America, between 18 and 22°S) using the Rapfish method – a rapid, innovative assessment model of fishery sustainability consisting of a multivariate ordination analysis of ecological, technological, social and economic data. The fisheries were divided into 26 fishery systems according to type of fleet, gear, target resource, ecosystem and environmental characteristics. A series of variables categorized in numeric scales from one to five were determined for each system. The attributes were compared through multivariate techniques. The comparison between fisheries in the state reflect the characteristic small-scale fisheries of the region, with minimal state intervention in management. The analysis of the social dimension revealed that the correlations between systems were mainly associated to the degree of isolation of the communities. The analysis of the ecological dimension revealed a clear coast/open ocean gradient and urbanized centers/isolated locations gradient related to the degree of commitment to the environment with regard to anthropogenic impact and the availability of resources. The economic and technological dimensions were arranged by variations in product destination, cost of fishing gear and degree of technology employed. The management dimension exhibited little sensitivity to the multivariate method employed. Few systems stood apart due to the few existing management measures that differentiated them. The pattern of sustainability found in the kite diagrams displays a balance between the dimensions in the perspective of maximum approximation to the optimum sustainability index. Either overfished and better socio-economic conditions, or marginalized people with use a more more sound strategy of resource exploitation.