URBAN FISHERS FROM THE COASTAL ZONE OF THE STATE OF PERNAMBUCO, BRAZIL

Estuarine fishing in Pernambuco produces more than half of the total amount of seafood captured in the state. The estuaries in the city of Recife and its surroundings, despite being strongly affected by real estate speculation and pollution are responsible for sheltering a large contingent of fishers: the urban fishers. The goal of this work was to characterize urban fishers as a class of professional fishers and to give visibility for a growing contingent of people which depends on fishing, by differentiating urban and rural fishermen and fisherwomen. Those fishers who need to survive from the few they take from the mangrove are not seen in public policies for the sector, being many times, prevented to access those policies by not fitting the required criteria, or even by not being present in Brazilian official fishery statistics. In order to achieve that, three hundred and thirty nine interviews were made with fishermen/shellfish gatherers in the estuarine communities of Bode and Rio Formoso, on the state of Pernambuco. Despite both communities performing statistically similar fishing activities, with estuarine fishing having a strong presence of women, the first one is embedded in the heart of Recife and intensely urbanized; the second one has characteristics similar to rural communities, being different in several aspects. In the urban community the fishers, despite being more educated, have worse housing conditions and weaker relationship with institutions and policies related to fishery and environment. Urban fishing needs more attention from society and better environmental conditions in order to perpetuate.