Whales, dolphins or fishes? The ethnotaxonomy of cetaceans in São Sebastião, Brazil

Abstract

The local knowledge of human populations about the natural world has been addressed through ethnobiological studies, especially concerning resources uses and their management. Several criteria, such as morphology, ecology, behavior, utility and salience, have been used by local communities to classify plants and animals. Studies regarding fishers' knowledge on cetaceans in the world, especially in Brazil, began in the last decade. Our objective is to investigate the folk classification by fishers concerning cetaceans, and the contribution of fishers' local knowledge to the conservation of that group. In particular, we aim to record fishers' knowledge in relation to cetaceans, with emphasis on folk taxonomy. The studied area is São Sebastião, located in the southeastern coast of Brazil, where 70 fishers from 14 communities were selected according to their fishing experience and interviewed through questionnaires about classification, nomenclature and ecological aspects of local cetaceans' species. Our results indicated that most fishers classified cetaceans as belonging to the life-form 'fish'. Fishers' citations for the nomenclature of the 11 biological species (10 biological genera), resulted in 14 folk species (3 generic names). Fishers' taxonomy was influenced mostly by the phenotypic and cultural salience of the studied cetaceans. Cultural transmission, vertical and horizontal, was intimately linked to fishers' classification process. The most salient species, therefore well recognized and named, were those most often caught by gillnets, in addition to the biggest ones and those most exposed by media, through TV programs, which were watched and mentioned by fishers. Our results showed that fishers' ecological knowledge could be a valuable contribution to cetaceans' conservation, helping to determine areas and periods for their protection, indicating priority topics for research and participating in alternative management related to the gillnet fisheries.

Ethnotaxonomical considerations and usage of ichthyofauna in a fishing community in Ceará State, Northeast Brazil

“…High correspondence emphasizes the importance of considering the local fishermen’s knowledge and accumulated experience in biological inventories [62], besides contributing to the development of management plans for fishery resources [43,63,64]. …”

Last Trip Return Rate Influence Patch Choice Decisions of Small-Scale Shrimp Trawlers: Optimal Foraging in São Francisco, Coastal Brazil

“…The northern portion of this coast encompasses the municipalities of Ubatuba, Caraguatatuba, São Sebastião and Ilhabela (Souza and Begossi 2007). São Sebastião (23°42′18″ to 23°45′38″ S-45°25′41″ to 45°53′49″W) is composed of a narrow lowland area between the sea and the slopes of the Atlantic Forest and is inhabited by almost 70,000 persons (IBGE 2000).…”

Report of the Working Group on Ethnobiology and Environmental Education related to Tursiops truncatus in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean

“…However, in Brazil, ethnobiological studies are reported for the states of Rio de Janeiro (RJ) (Zappes et al, 2010;2011a), São Paulo (SP) (Souza, 2007;Souza and Begossi, 2007), Santa Catarina (SC) (Simões-Lopes, 1991;Simões-Lopes and Daura-Jorge, 2008) and Rio Grande do Sul (RS) (Simões-Lopes, 1991;Zappes et al, 2011b;2013;. In Cagarras Archipelago (RJ), southeastern Brazil, a study aimed to identify the possible interactions and conflicts between the bottlenose dolphins and fisheries through the traditional knowledge (Zappes et al, 2011a).…”

“…In São Sebastião (SP) a study about the popular taxonomy of cetaceans indicated that the bottlenose dolphin is classified by fishermen as part of the genus boto and/or golfinho, belonging to the ethnospecies boto-caldeirão and/or golfinhoflíper (Souza, 2007;Souza and Begossi, 2007).…”