Dear Marmammers,
my co-authors and I are pleased to
announce the following publication:
When You Get What You Haven’t Paid for: Molecular
Identification of “Douradinha” Fish Fillets Can Help End the Illegal Use of River Dolphins
as Bait in Brazil
Haydée A. Cunha, Vera M. F. da Silva, Teresa E.
C. Santos, Stella M. Moreira, Nivia A. S. do Carmo and
Antonio M. Solé-Cava
Journal of Heredity 106: 565-572
This study provided scientific proof
used by the Amazon State prosecutor to recommend a ban on the fishing and
fraudulent selling of piracatinga as “douradinha”, later issued by the Brazilian
Ministries of the Environment and Fisheries. This measure was considered as a
first, much needed action to end the illegal use of river dolphins as bait in
Brazil.
To learn more about the “boto-bait”
issue and to help, please visit http://www.alertavermelho.org.br/en/.
Abstract
The fishery for Calophysus macropterus, an Amazonian necrophagous catfish, is
highly detrimental to river dolphins and caimans, which are deliberately killed
for use as bait. In the Brazilian Amazon, this fishery has increased over the
last decade, in spite of the rejection of scavenger fishes by Brazilian
consumers. It was suspected that C.
macropterus fillets were being sold in Brazilian markets, disguised as a
fictitious fish (the “douradinha”). We collected 62 fillets from “douradinha” and
other suspiciously named fish from 4 fish-processing plants sold at 6 markets
in Manaus, in the Brazilian Amazon, and sequenced the cytochrome b gene to
identify fillets to species. Sixty percent of fillets labeled “douradinha” or
with other deceptive names were actually C.
macropterus. Six other fish species of low commercial value were also
found. The presence of dolphin tissue in the stomach contents of C. macropterus was confirmed by mtDNA
control region sequencing. Our results formed the scientific basis for a
moratorium on the fishing and fraudulent selling of C. macropterus, issued by the Brazilian Ministries of the
Environment and Fisheries. Exposure of this fraud via the mass media can help
end the illegal use of dolphins as bait in Brazil.
The pdf is freely available from the Journal of
Heredity site:
Cheers,
Haydée
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Haydée A. Cunha, PhD
MAQUA - Laboratório de Mamíferos Aquáticos e Bioindicadores (UERJ)
Faculdade de Oceanografia
Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524 / Sl. 4002-E
Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brasil
CEP 20.550-013
Tel: +55 (21) 2334-0065 / 99981-8382