Photo: Marcelo Viana

The initiative “Multifishing: Science for Fish, Fisheries and Fisher Sustainability in Rio de Janeiro” takes an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to broadening the knowledge of and response to the state’s main problems in fisheries-related biology. The project is led by the Educational Foundation for Science and Development and looks to ensure the sustainability of fisheries, fish species and fishermen and women in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Among the project’s core activities are a study of the reproductive dynamics of fisheries resources, data-collection on fishing fleets and fishermen and women operating out of three as yet little studied ports on the northern Rio coast (Macaé, Rio das Ostras and Barra de São João), an estimate of the percentage of fish species threatened with extinction nation and state-wide, and the creation of a database containing the gene sequences of some 150 popular catch species. This information will be important to conserving these resources and detecting catch fraud and intentional mislabelling.