School vessel: transfering technology and teaching artisanal fishermen how to catch fish during the lobster closed-season in Northeast Brazil

Abstract

The main world fisheries are in decline due the pressure on fishing resources, what brings about hard-to-solve biological,  social and economic problems. The lobster lobster fishery is on collapse, facing the biggest crisis of its history in Northeast Brazil. The  School-Vessel Project described on this paper had as objective to contribute to the improvement of the professional standing of fishermen  in Ceará State through technology transference during the lobster closed-season in Northeast Brazil. School vessels from Itarema  and Beberibe counties, and the R.V. “Prof.Martins Filho” (LABOMAR, Federal University of Ceará) were used for the tuition of 30  artisanal fishermen as instructors/demonstrators responsible for technological transference of fishing techniques with bottom longlines  in their native communities. During the qualification process, four experimental fishing trips were made using a single-thread longline,  and performed adjustments in each of the school boats engaged in deep-sea fisheries with that gear. During the fishing trips about 1,200  kg of fish were caught. As a recommendation, qualification programs of artisanal, distant-water fishermen must be encouraged by  government bodies, because of the strong impact made by the training experience herein described on fishing communities.