Dynamics of artisanal fisheries performed with hook-and-line gear under different management regimes in Brazil

Artisanal fisheries are a source of livelihood for small-scale fishermen around the world. The risk of overfishing is a constant concern. The establishment of conservation units is a strategy to alleviate the pressure on fishing stocks. In the State of Ceará, there are two conservation units in the category of extractive reserves (Resex)11Resex - Extractive reserve.. This study characterized the dynamics of the artisanal fishing of the hook-and-line fleet in three communities with different modes of use. Data were collected by monitoring the landings twice a month from 2017 to 2019 at Mucuripe beach, Batoque Resex and Prainha do Canto Verde22PCV - Prainha do Canto Verde. (PCV) Marine Resex, State of Ceará, Brazil. Data were collected for biomass (B), fishing effort (f), species composition, fishing ground and type of bottom habitat. A total of 234 vessels were sampled and 85 species were identified at the three sites, showing that the use of fisheries targets multiple species. The Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to analyze the production and fishing effort data. The largest landing was shown at Mucuripe (10.16 ton), which also had the highest mean production (224 kg). Mucuripe employed the highest mean effort (2711 hook*hour) and showed the highest number of species per boat, and Batoque the lowest (48 hook*h). Two-way ANOVA was used to test differences in richness and catch per unit effort33CPUE - Catch per unit effort. (CPUE) across sites and between seasons. There was no difference in CPUE across sites. The species richness was different across sites, with the highest average in Mucuripe (6.4 species per boat) and the lowest in PCV (3.6 species per boat). There was no variation in species richness between seasons. The correspondence analysis identified a strong association of the ballyhoo halfbeak, corocoro grunt, chere-chere grunt, Atlantic spadefish and Atlantic thread herring with the artificial hard bottom habitat, and a correlation of the guachanche barracuda and black grouper to the natural hard bottom. In both Resex, more specimens were caught in artificial structures and in Mucuripe in natural bottom habitats. The linear regression analysis indicated a significant relationship between effort (f) and biomass (B) in Batoque and PCV. There was no relationship between f and CPUE in both reserves. In this study, it was observed that the choice of fishing grounds and bottom habitat influenced the composition of species caught by the artisanal fleet. No difference in fishing production was found across the studied sites under different types of management.