Despite the obvious negative effects caused by invasive species, some recent studies have shown that the impacts at local scale are diverse and not necessarily negative. Arborescent benthic organisms such as octocorals form three-dimensional structures capable of increasing the amount of substrate available and providing shelter for epibiont species. We investigated the role of the alien octocoral Carijoa riisei on the diversity of benthic communities in three shipwrecks on the north-eastern coast of Brazil. We expected that (a) the fauna associated with the octocoral are richer and more diverse compared to the adjacent; (b) some species are exclusively associated with C. riisei; (c) the species that are present both in the areas with and without C. riisei have a greater abundance when associated with the octocoral. For this, we compared the macrobenthic communities associated with C. riisei to those found in adjacent areas where the octocoral was absent. Our study showed that the communities associated with the octocoral were 1.5 times richer and 10 times more abundant than adjacent communities, with 29

Shipwrecks have been accidentally and deliberately deployed worldwide, becoming artificial reefs for tourist attractions and habitats for marine species. Recreational divers often visit wrecks and post images on Instagram – a popular social network for image circulation. Here we evaluated if such images could be used as a data source for surveying sea turtles in shipwrecks and assessing diver–sea turtle interactions. We targeted the coast of Pernambuco in Brazil, which has over 100 shipwrecks. We inspected public videos and photos posted on Instagram from October 2010 to April 2020. We used 20 tags in our search, which led to 2353 images (210 videos; 2143 photos). A total of 220 posts depicted sea turtles (189 photos and 31 videos; 41 sea turtles in videos and 199 in photos) and their enhanced quality‐facilitated species identification. We detected Caretta caretta (loggerhead sea turtle), Chelonia mydas (green sea turtle) and Eretmochelys imbricata (hawksbill sea turtle). Turtles were found in 13 shipwrecks, all with bathymetry up to 30 m. Photos and videos provided the same proportion of images of each turtle species. Nevertheless, from a temporal perspective, this scenario changed. All three species were observed in photo posts in 4 of the 9 full years considered, whereas all three species were only observed in 1 year in the video posts. We registered four types of diver–turtle interactions from videos: ‘abrupt approach, chase, touch and pose’. We classified ‘abrupt approach, chasing and touching’ behaviours as major disturbances as they altered the turtles’ behaviours. We classified ‘pose’ as a minor disturbance as it caused no apparent change in turtle behaviour. Chasing was the most frequently observed interaction. Instagram is a useful complementary tool that can aid in the surveillance of sea turtles in shipwrecks. However, the limitations of this type of data and adequate data filtering criteria must be considered.

Fish aggregating devices (FAD) are an ancient fishery technique that benefits from the gregarious behavior of many species. They represent alternatives to usual census approach to study fish recruits. Based on this, we test two FAD models built for fish recruitment research, Standard monitoring unit for the recruitment of reef fishes (SMURF) and Artificial Reef Mooring (ARM) moored for the first time close to deep shipwrecks inBrazil Northeastern coast. We compared fish recruits’ abundance sampled by both models at two depths, bottom and mid-water (6 meters from the bottom). SMURFs sampled seven times more fish recruits than ARM with no difference between depth. We discovered that SMURFs mooring tilted 24º in mean with local marine currents. A long-term study with SMURFs tested immersion time influence in recruit’s sampling, and explored recruit’s abundance and standard length at two depth from the bottom. Increasing immersion timefrom 14-28 days did not influence recruit’s abundance. Bottom and Mid-water SMURFs sampled equal recruit’s number and fish sizes were significantly larger at the bottom. FADs, specially SMURFs, showed good tool to sample fish recruits in deeper shipwrecks,however standardization of FAD deployment is indicated to maximize work time and security in unstable sea conditions.

A pesca artesanal apresenta reconhecida import�ncia na produ��o de alimentos no Brasil, principalmente na regi�o Nordeste, onde est� situada a regi�o do Sert�o do Paje�, no Estado de Pernambuco. Nesse sentido, um grande contingente de pescadores atua em rios e reservat�rios da regi�o, n�o apenas exercendo a captura do pescado, mas tamb�m trabalhando na confec��o das artes de pesca. Compreendendo esse cen�rio, o estudo apresentado objetivou compreender os aspectos relacionados na confec��o de tarrafas de pesca. Assim, entre os meses de janeiro e junho de 2016, foram selecionados pescadores que confeccionavam tarrafas de pesca, atrav�s do m�todo de coleta de informa��es baseado na amostragem bola de neve. A pesquisa foi realizada em duas fases, sendo que na primeira delas foram realizadas entrevistas livres e, a partir da sensibiliza��o do p�blico alvo, seguiu-se com entrevistas semiestruturadas baseadas em question�rios e observa��es diretas. As entrevistas eram realizadas com os pescadores em seus respectivos locais de trabalho ou resid�ncias. Como resultado foram identificadas 20 pessoas que atuam na confec��o de tarrafas de pesca na cidade de Serra Talhada, todos do sexo masculino, com idades que variaram de 34 a 88 anos, considerados nesse trabalho como mestres tarrafeiros, pois seguem conduzindo essa arte de tecer tarrafas de pesca manualmente.