Covering the patches in the Brazilian fishing statistics
Since 2010, the Brazilian government has not collected fish landing data, essential information for the monitoring the Brazilian marine fisheries. There is also no information on the actual number of fishermen, the number and capacity of the vessels involved and the state of the infrastructure linked to fishing. Without such basic information, we are left in total darkness in a game of guessing what is happening to our oceans and to the food that so many people depend upon for their food security and livelihood. Copacabana no Rio de Janeiro We have repeated over and over: fishing statistics are fundamental to know the state of exploitation of our fish stocks. If we do not know what is happening to them, how could we propose sound management measures? How can we address the criticism of fishermen when they disagree with our proposals? In most cases, we only have scattered information to support our claims, while fishermen, especially the industrial ones, may have economic power to lobb