Incidental catch of South American sea lion in a pair trawl off southern Brazil

Authors

  • Rodrigo Machado 1 Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Aquáticos do Rio Grande do Sul (GEMARS), Imbé, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. 2 Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Laboratório de Ecologia de Mamíferos (LEM), São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. *Present address: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal, Laboratório de Sistemática e Ecologia de Aves e Mamíferos Marinhos, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
  • Larissa Rosa Oliveira 1 Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Aquáticos do Rio Grande do Sul (GEMARS), Imbé, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. 2 Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Laboratório de Ecologia de Mamíferos (LEM), São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
  • Santiago Montealegre-Quijano 3 Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP, Curso de Engenharia de Pesca, Registro, São Paulo, Brazil.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4013/nbc.2015.101.06

Abstract

The population of the South American sea lion, Otaria flavescens (Shaw, 1800), in Uruguay is declining at an annual rate of 1.6 to 2.0%. Although the reasons are still unknown, interactions with fishing activities have been identified as a major cause. The individuals that arrive along the coast of Brazil come from the breeding colonies off Uruguay after their breeding period. We report here the first record of incidental catch of South American sea lions in Brazilian waters by a pair trawl. On July 17th, 2008 a young male of South American sea lion was incidentally caught during a commercial pair trawl fishing trip along the southern Brazilian coast (32º57’S, 52º31’W), in a depth ranging from 15 to 20 m. Despite being punctual, this record is an evidence of a potential major threat to South American sea lions in southern Brazil and Uruguay, since trawl industrial fishing is a very important economic activity in South Brazil.

Keywords: Pinnipeds, Otaria flavescens, human impact, human-carnivore conflicts, fishery interactions.

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Published

2014-10-29

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2015): January - April

Section

Short Communication

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