Collecting of wild fish in the Amazon region

Sam.

I came here to the Rio Negro to observe what our plans are for the future to develop a better industry for Manaus in the region of Barcelos and Santa Isabel. Because the industry has been suffering in the last 10 years, there is a big decline in the export of fish. It's felt into the communities. A lot of people went out of fishing ornamental fish. The cardinal used to be, you know, 20 years ago, 80% of the exports because it's one of the most beautiful fish. It's now being also tank raised or pond raised by many people and breeders all over the world. So there is competition for the cardinal. Cardinals from here are much more beautiful in color than the tank raised ones or the pond raised ones because they have the real red and blue in full color, which is sometimes missing by the tank race, which are a little more pale, less red, more white belly. So I see a difference in quality. If you go snorkeling here in the rivers, there's so many small beauties of fish which are not seen as an ornamental fish for the local people because they have not being trained to look at it and the market is looking for this kind of fish and maybe they're not so much aware about it, but there is more interest in wild fish than before. But on the condition that it brings social economic benefit for the local indigenous people. We're only fishing in a few percentage, maybe 2, 3% of the total Amazon forest has been fished. Now Ibamba has A list of 725 species produced which are allowed to be exported. And only 265 species have actually on this moment been shipped out. So there is still a gap of nearly 500 species which have not been used for the potential. And any importer in the world would like to see a diversity of fish. It's a socio economic benefit. And the fishing populations preserve the forest, preserve the Amazon. The little they do, they protect. They are the best protectors because their rivers, their forest is their source of income. It's a sustainable use of natural resources and the people benefit, the world benefits and at the same time, collecting wild fish is something which should not be regarded as negative. And it's not just taking something from the wild. No, it's using something from the wild for many beneficial reasons.

Sam. Sa.