A computer simulation model to evaluate the effects of fishing and fragmentation by dams on the spatial distribution of two species of migratory catfishes in the Amazon Basin

• Grant number: 12/15559-0
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): June 09, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Fishery Resources and Fishery Engineering - Inland Water Fishery Resources
• Principal researcher: Miguel Petrelli Junior
• Grantee: Fabio Cop Ferreira
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

About 90% of the commercial fishing landing in inland areas of the Amazon Basin is composed by migratory species. Overfishing and damming are major threats to these stocks. This project aims to implement an individual-based model to simulate the distribution patterns of two of these species, the piramutaba (Brachyplatystoma vailantii) and the dourada (B. rousseauxii). These large catfishes deserve special attention because they are the only freshwater fishes exploited by the fishing industry in Brazil and because they migrate over 3,000 km between the estuary and the white-water tributaries in the Upper Amazon. The model will be spatially explicit, representing the dendritic network structure, elevation, declivity, and flow patterns of the main rivers in the Amazon Basin. It will be modeled the process of movement, growth, reproduction and mortality at the individual level, and the patterns at the population level will be compared with catch data. In a second phase, simulations will be carried out to assess the population trajectories over different scenarios of fishing and damming. The results should provide subsidies to preserve these fish stocks, unifying information about basic biology, ecology and life-history that are currently dispersed in the literature. Moreover, the model aims to stimulate the application of this approach to other migratory fishes in different hydrographic basins in Brazil.