One of the biggest consumers in a global market worth an estimated £2bn trade in the cheap fish in the south American country is booming But worried conservationists say most people do not realise they are eating shark and there is no sign of activity among the colourful fishing boats moored around the harbour of Cananéia a sleepy fishing town 160 miles south of São Paulo a delivery of frozen fish from Uruguay has just arrived and a few men in white gumboots are busy unloading pallets of beheaded specimens labelled Galeorhinus galeus – school shark These thin grey fish will be kept in a cold store on shelves already stacked ceiling-high with carcasses of blue sharks all awaiting processing and distribution to cities inland “Why do we work with shark?” says Helgo Muller “Because people like it; it’s good and cheap protein Shark is just a small fraction of the firm’s business but they process about 10 tonnes a month mostly blue shark imported from countries including Costa Rica Shark on sale at a fish market in Peruíbe in São Paulo stateCommunities up and down Brazil’s 4,600-mile (7,400km) coastline have always eaten sharks “It is part of our tradition,” says Lucas Gabriel Jesus Silva a 27-year-old whose grandfather moved to the area in the 1960s to fish sharks for their fins the widespread appetite for shark meat that Muller’s company helps feed is now troubling scientists and environmentalists who worry about unsustainable pressure on various species Demand has made Brazil the top importer and one of the biggest consumers of shark meat in a global market worth an estimated $2.6bn (£2bn) Would they take a whale that got caught in the net and serve it to their family Sea Shepherd Brasil“Sharks are very vulnerable to overexploitation as they don’t reproduce as often or with as many offspring as bony fishes do,” explains Prof Aaron MacNeil Research published in April found that 83% of the shark and ray species sold in Brazil were threatened according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classification with at least 80 million sharks still being killed annually Traditionally, Brazilians ate shark in moqueca a seafood stew from the states of Bahia and Espírito Santo And many of Cananéia’s residents recall how their older relatives would use shark’s head broth and cartilage as homemade remedies shark has been absorbed into Brazilians’ diet as it is cheaper than other white fish It now appears in school and hospital canteens The fact that few Brazilians realise they are eating shark has probably helped make it ubiquitous While coastal people with a shark-eating tradition recognise the subtle differences in texture and flavour between shark species to most Brazilians it is just cação – a generic term under which both shark and ray meat are sold The fact that few Brazilians realise they are eating shark has probably helped make it ubiquitous“Brazilians are very poorly informed – they don’t know that cação is shark and even when they do they often aren’t aware that these animals are at risk of extinction,” says Nathalie Gil In Cananéia, locals joke: “It’s cação when you eat it, and shark [tubarão] when it eats you.” But campaigners say the generic labelling prevents informed decisions by consumers, and this could even affect their health due to high concentrations of dangerous pollutants in these top predators they might not eat it,” says Ana Barbosa Martins A 5-metre-long great white shark caught off Cananéia in 1992 is preserved in the town’s museumBrazilian law does not allow fishing for any sharks but they can be landed as bycatch with few restrictions The country’s tuna fleet often lands larger amounts of shark than tuna But it’s a form of fishing that’s completely unregulated,” says Martins The capture and sale of protected species is banned If caught they must be returned to the sea recalls how sand tiger sharks (known locally as mangona) were landed with impunity long after they became one of the first species to be listed as endangered in 2004 “Mangona was easily sold at the distribution centre the guys got fined and then it stopped,” says Silva He claims fishers were unaware that it was protected he gets a cação and he can’t even bring it home to feed his familyAna Alinda AlvesMisidentification is frequent in domestic landings and imports identified a specimen in the Uruguayan shipment seen by the Guardian as a narrownose smoothhound shark rather than the school shark listed on the label (both species are considered critically endangered in Brazil Martins believes effective monitoring depends on authorities better communicating and collaborating with fishing communities who often resent restrictions that they consider unreasonable This was evident in the views of local fishers along the São Paulo coast Lucia Rissato She has always sold shark to her customers“Fishers don’t cast their nets to catch shark specifically but sometimes a [protected] hammerhead comes up What can you do?” says Lucia Rissato,who runs a fish stall in Peruíbe a seaside town about 75 miles north of Cananéia Silva echoes a widely held view in his community but it doesn’t stop [sharks] from getting caught in nets that are set for Atlantic croaker for hake.” He started going to sea aged 12 and believes shark populations have not declined “as much as people say” the government added five new species to its endangered list Rissato complains that she can no longer sell any locally captured shark as it is not clear what is permitted Ana Alinda Alves, who sorts fish at Cananéia’s port, says: ‘Authorities treat fishers like gangsters’“We have to sell it in secret, like drugs,” says the 48-year-old, who that day had a haul of Brazilian sharpnose shark in her fridge – a permitted species, but which she showed as furtively as if they were contraband. Sixty-five year-old Ana Alinda Alves sorts fish at the wharf in Cananéia and has five sons who fish. “The authorities treat fishers like gangsters,” she sighs. “The fisher goes to sea, he gets a cação and he can’t even bring it home to feed his family. He didn’t steal anything. He went fishing, he went to work.” Read moreAmid global efforts to improve protection of sharks A bill presented to congress last year would require cação to be labelled as shark (or ray) at every stage of the production chain Another bill proposes banning buying shark in public tenders the government has introduced quotas for blue shark caught by Brazil’s tuna longliners But these provisions can only go so far, especially as they do not affect imports. Conservationists such as Gil argue that public opinion on these ecologically vital animals needs to change “Would they take a whale that got caught in the net and serve it to their family but also because there is a respect for whales,” she says A narrownose smoothhound shark among a shipment from Uruguay labelled as school shark. Misidentification, whether accidental or deliberate, is frequentThis is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025. The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media. Volume 6 - 2018 | https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2018.00025 The Cananéia-Iguape system is a combined estuarine-lagoonal sedimentary system It consists of a network of channels and islands oriented mainly parallel to the coast was opened in the northern part of this system to connect a major river of the region The Valo Grande was closed with a dam and re-opened twice between 1978 and 1995 These openings and closures of the Valo Grande had a significant influence on the Cananéia-Iguape system and geochronological data from a sediment core collected at the southern end of the 50 km long lagoonal system showing how the phases of the opening and closure of the channel through time are expressed in the sedimentary record Despite the homogeneity of the grain size and magnetic properties throughout the core significant variations in the mineralogical composition showed the influence of the opening of the channel on the sediment supply with lower quartz and halite and higher kaolinite corresponded to periods when the Valo Grande was open as well as the disappearance of other detrital minerals corresponded with periods of absence or closure of the channel indicating a more sea-influenced depositional setting This work represented an example of anthropogenic influence in a lagoonal-estuarine sedimentary system which is a common context along the coast of Brazil Figure 2. Geologic map of the Cananéia Alkaline Massif area (adapted from Riccomini, 1995 with permission) The core was collected on the southern end of the lagoon This location receives sediment from all the different inputs into the sedimentary system and thus is ideal to assess the extension and the intensity of the disturbances created by the opening of the channel The core CAN-N01 was collected using a gravity corer at −25.023831 The core is 137 cm long with a 7.5 cm of diameter and was sampled each 2.5 cm Samples of the local bedrock, the Cananéia Alkaline Massif, forming the São João hill, were collected from an outcrop at −25.026223, −47.923203. The collection sites are shown in Figure 3 (B) outcrop of São Jõao hill All the measurements for this study were performed in the laboratories at the Institute of Oceanography of the University of São Paulo The samples and parameters analyzed are listed below The samples were collected continuously along the core with 5 cm spacing Carbonate constituents were removed with a 10% HCl solution in a beaker over a hot plate at 80°C put inside an extraction hood while stirring hourly and adding more solution as it saturated the samples were the washed at least twice and dried in an oven at a temperature of above 60°C for approximately 24 h Organic matter was removed with a 10% H-peroxide solution in a beaker over a hot plate until the solution became colorless and changing the solution every 2 days the samples were washed at least twice with distilled water Grain sizes of 27 samples were determined using a Malvern Mastersizer-2000 Laser analyzer® In order to study in detail the magnetic properties of the core a U-channel sample spanning the entire length of core (137 cm) was collected Discrete oriented samples in cylindrical plastic boxes were also collected every 2.5 cm in order to isolate the characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) Different rock magnetic measurements were performed to characterize the magnetic mineralogy of the core Mass-dependent magnetic susceptibility was determined on discrete samples using an Agico KF1 Kappabridge In order to perform the measurements with the 2G Cryogenic Magnetometer we used the Laboratory of Paleomagnetism of the Institute of Astronomy Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of São Paulo The results, presented using the Particle Size Distribution (PSZ) (Figure 4) showed high concentrations of fine and very fine sand (respectively on average 45.2 and 32.7%) No significant variations in grain size are observable throughout the core Distribution of grain size in core CAN-N-01 profile The nutrients concentrations in pore waters are shown in Figure 5 Distribution profiles of dissolved nutrient concentrations in pore-waters: (A) N-Ammonium Concentration of N- ammonium ranged from 685 to 3,282 μmol L−1. The values showed an increasing trend downcore, except from a value at 90 cm that decreased to 757 μmol L−1 (Figure 5A) Phosphate concentration ranged from 104,6 to 291,7 μmol L−1. The values showed an increasing trend downcore except at 20 cm that dropped from 170,3 to 104,6 μmol L−1, and at 120 cm that dropped to 177,3 (Figure 5B) Silicate values ranged from 640.2 to 836.2 μmol L−1, with irregular distribution (Figure 5C) the vast majority of the samples showed a particular pattern in the variation of intensity of the NRM suggesting that the sample had acquired gyroremanence (GRM) The presence of an early gyroremanence precluded the study of the behavior of the sample at higher alternating fields The PCA analysis showed that the ChRM always had negative inclinations, as expected, with mean inclination of −37.2° (α95 of 1.6°), (Figure 6) that is perfectly in agreement with the expected value of −37.9° for the locality (as calculated with the Model WMM integrated between the years 2012 and 2014) Distribution of paleomagnetism data for core CAN-N-01 A secondary component was recognizable at low demagnetization fields and was interpreted as a viscous remanent magnetization (VRM) carried by a very low-coercivity mineral The results of the environmental magnetic studies are summarized in Figure 6 The various parameters show little to no features with almost constant values along the core A few positive peaks in NRM and ARM can be interpreted as an increase in the relative abundance of magnetic minerals while negative peaks can be interpreted as a decrease S-Ratios give information about the relative concentration of high and low (for S-Ratio300) and middle and low (S-Ratio100) coercivity minerals with almost constant values close to 1 for the S-Ratio300 and 0.4 for the S-Ratio100 throughout the core with only a slight increase in the interval between 80 and 90 cm The HIRMs curves also show almost no variation with only some minor variations at 40 and 75 cm that should represent small fluctuations in the abundance of high coercivity minerals Model CIC was applied to the vertical profile of 210Pb (Figure 7) and the calculated sedimentation rate was 0.43 ± 0.02 cm yr−1 p < 0.05) shows that the sedimentation rate underwent little variations within the core it was limited to the 8–12 cm of the core and it is not statistically significant to the overall calculation given the fit quality obtained from the statistical parameters presented above this result is supported by the vertical distribution of 137Cs which estimates a mean sedimentation rate of 0.39 ± 0.02 cm yr−1 for the first 40 cm of the core based on its horizon of maximum activity (corresponding to the nuclear fallout maximum of 1963 from past atomic tests) Vertical distribution of 210xsPb and 137Cs for core CAN-N-01 estimating a deposition year of 1920 for the 40-cm-deep layer of the core Given that it was not observed evident changes in the sedimentation rate within the core the age model created with the CIC model was extrapolated throughout the entire core XRD analysis of the sediment core revealed three main mineralogical assemblages: (i) quartz around 99% and halite; (ii) quartz around 80%, and a minor fraction dominated by brucite; (iii) quartz between 60 and 80%, and a minor fraction dominated by kaolinite (Figure 8) Mineralogical distribution for core CAN-N-01: concentration of quartz on the right side and minor mineral fraction on the left side Minor mineral abundances are expressed as normalized respect to quartz The interval from the top of the core to 65 cm depth is dominated by the mineralogical assemblages (ii) and (iii), with lower quartz content. Only a brief interval, between 15 and 22.5 cm, is dominated by the assemblage (i). Down-core, quartz content increases and below 95 cm it reaches the abundance of 97% or higher, with only halite as a minor mineral fraction. The XRD analysis of the bedrock samples yielded the results shown in Table 1 Mineralogical composition of the bedrock samples Our results are in agreement with previous studies on the bedrock in this area, which found intrusive rocks, saturated or oversaturated in silica, with Na-feldspar more abundant than K-feldspar (Spinelli and Gomes, 2009) The core was collected close to where the water outflows from the lagoon to the sea in a moderate energy environment mainly controlled by the currents flowing parallel to the coast In this context the lack of significant grain size variations along the core indicates that the energy of the system remained constant during the deposition of the entire interval and therefore the changes observed in the mineralogical assemblages must be related to the sediment supply the opening of the Valo Grande channel in 1852 should have occurred at 70 cm depth its closure with the construction of the dam in 1978 at 16 cm and the re-opening of the channel in 1983 at 13 cm The results of the environmental magnetic studies showed almost constant values along the core The positive correlation between ARM and IRM peaks and the magnetic grain size suggested that the variation in concentration of magnetic minerals was accompanied by variations in the relative magnetic grain size with a general trend of bigger grain size during periods of low concentration and vice-versa S-Ratio curves showed that the most predominant magnetic minerals are of low to middle coercivity, probably low-Ti magnetite (Ozima and Larson, 1970) and HIRMs curves could represent an increase of fine grained magnetite crystals in the sediment comparable with the features found in sediments from Mamangua (RJ that were interpreted as the presence of living magnetotactic bacteria producing biogenic magnetite (Rodelli et al. Major mineral concentrations and pore water results over time for core CAN-N-01 Dating before 1850 has been extrapolated from the sedimentation rate (1) Period before the construction of the Valo Grande channel; (2) Period during the construction of the Valo Grande channel; (3) Period during which the Valo Grande channel was completely open; (4) Period of the closure of the Valo Grande channel with a dam; (5) Period after the destruction of the dam and complete re-opening of the Valo Grande channel Mineralogical analyses show that halite and quartz have similar trends throughout the core, with maximum values corresponding to the periods when the Valo Grande channel was closed and decreasing when it was open (Figure 9) Their abundances have a marked increase between 15 and 22.5 cm where the first type of mineralogical assemblage replaces the others an alternation between the mineralogical assemblages (ii) and (iii) dominates from the top to the depth of 67.5 cm where quartz content begins to increase and the first type of mineralogical assemblage becomes more frequent Mineralogical assemblage (i) predominates from the depth of 90 cm down-core Halite can precipitate only from highly saline seawater therefore its presence indicates the absence of riverine input that freshens the water during the periods of absence or closure of the Valo Grande (between 1978 and 1983 and before 1827) the Ribeira River entered in the sea more northwards and did not supply significant amount of sediment to the Cananéia–Iguape aquatic environment The mineralogical composition of the sediment core indicates that during the time when the Valo Grande was opened the sediments were characterized by lower quartz content and significant amounts of kaolinite which corresponds also to a slight increase in detrital magnetite estimated from environmental magnetic analyses These minerals may have come from the alteration and erosion of the metamorphic basement forming most of the bedrock of the region and transported there by the opening of the Valo Grande before the construction of the Valo Grande and during its closure the sedimentary supply into the lagoon was controlled by sea currents which delivered more mature sediments composed mainly by quartz Our data shows that the sedimentary input into the lagoon changed during the last 165 years in response to the openings and closures of the Valo Grande channel These variations are well displayed by the mineralogical assemblages despite the homogenous grain size and environmental magnetic parameters and pore waters profiles of a sedimentary core from the southern portion of the estuarine-lagoonal system Despite the homogeneity of the grain size throughout the approximately 300 years interval significant variations in the mineralogical composition of the non-quartz material revealed the influence of the opening of the channel on the sediment supply in the downstream part of the lagoon A sediment composition presenting lower quartz and halite and higher kaolinite and franklinite corresponded to periods of freshwater intrusion into the lagoon due to the opening of the Valo Grande channel High abundance of quartz and halite and the disappearance of the detrital minerals corresponded with prolonged periods of channel closure and a more sea-influenced setting both before the opening of the Valo and during its following closures These results are corroborated also by pore water dissolved nutrients As estuarine-lagoonal sedimentary systems are rather common along the coast of Brazil the case presented in this study could have several analogs in still less studied settings interpretation of the data and writing of the manuscript; LJ: Magnetic properties editing of the manuscript; PA: Geochronology editing of the manuscript; RL: Geochronology editing of the manuscript; DR: Magnetic properties editing of the manuscript; GB: Pore waters editing of the manuscript; EB: Pore waters Financial Support was provided by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo the PhD program of the Instituto Oceanográfico da Universidade de São Paulo and the fellowship of Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest industry and sewage on the phosphorus geochemistry of a subtropical estuary in Brazil Circulação e Transporte de sal: Barra de Cananéia Sul do mar de Cananéia e Baía do Trapandé Estimativa da descarga de água doce no sistema estuarino-lagunar de Cananéia-Iguape Google Scholar Eutrophication and bacterial pollution caused by industrial and domestic wastes at the Baixada Santista Estuarine System–Brazil A evolução Geológica Quaternária ea Influência do Valo Grande na Dinâmica sEDIMENTAR da Área de Iguape “Wellsite Mineralogical Data Acquisition; 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Flaminia Cornaggia, ZmxhbWluaWEuY29ybmFnZ2lhQGdtYWlsLmNvbQ== †Present Address: Luciano Alessandretti, Instituto de Geografia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Brazil Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish. Demarcations encompass the municipalities of Sete Barras, Osasco, Miracatu, Cananéia, Iguape, and the state capital, São Paulo. All documents pertain to the Indigenous Lands located inside the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica) and the advancement of the demarcation process also represents a guarantee for the preservation of the biome, the most devastated in the country, as well as a historical reparation for the Guarani and Guarani Mbya peoples, who traditionally occupy these territories. “We must reaffirm, more and more, that the state of São Paulo is an Indigenous Land and that the Indigenous peoples are strong and their culture is very much alive. We have the duty to protect this rich and diverse culture, which only makes our country greater,” stated the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara. PEGUAOTY — The territory has 6,230 hectares and is located in the municipality of Sete Barras. It integrally overlaps the State Parks of Intervalares and Carlos Botelho. Another 7% is contained in the Serra do Mar Environmental Protection Area (Área de Proteção Ambiental / APA), declared as a Conservation Unit (Unidade de Conservação). DJAIKO-ATY — In the municipality of Miracatu, the area has 1,216 hectares and belongs to the Guarani Nhandeva, Guarani Mbya, Tupi, and Tupi-Guarani. The territory is located in the Vale do Ribeira region and is completely contained inside the Serra do Mar Environmental Protection Area, declared as a Conservation Unit. AMBA PORà— With 7,204 hectares, the land is located in the municipality of Miracatu, where the Guarani-Mbya Indigenous people live. Integrally contained inside the Serra do Mar Environmental Protection Area, it has a mining site at its border. “We have been waiting for this demarcation for over 20 years. We know that the struggle does not end here, but we still believe in our country’s Justice system and in our Constitution,” stated Saulo Guarani, a leader from the Amba Porã Indigenous Land. PINDOTY-ARAÇA-MIRIM — The land is occupied by the Guarani-Mbya Indigenous people and has part of its territory inside the Cananéia–Iguape–Peruíbe Environmental Protection Area. With 1,030 hectares, it is located in the city of Cananéia. TAPY'I/RIO BRANQUINHO — Belonging to the Guarani-Mbya, the land has 1,154 hectares and is located in the municipality of Cananéia. The entire territory is contained inside the Cananéia–Iguape–Peruíbe Environmental Protection Area. GUAVIRATY — With 1,248 hectares, the area is divided between the cities of Iguape and Cananéia. It is fully occupied by the Guarani-Mbya Indigenous people and its territory is completely contained inside the Cananéia–Iguape–Peruíbe Environmental Protection Area. BrazilChevron AlamySave this storySaveSave this storySaveAll products and listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links Cardoso has six communities of Caiçaras—subsistence farmers and fishermen whose culture (like Brazil’s itself) is a mix of European it’s a fantastically feral place full of marshes and mangroves I hike along a wooden boardwalk in search of regal egrets and flamboyant scarlet ibises brown howler monkeys fill the viscous air with their guttural moans is how much of the Brazilian coast looked before Europeans arrived in the 1500s which specializes in regenerative tourism in the Atlantic Forest it’s nearly as diverse as the better-known Amazon and actually has more species per square meter.” The Atlantic rainforest near Salto Morato Nature Reserve A gold frog in Itatiaia National Park in southern Brazil If you’ve seen any photos of Rio de Janeiro then you’re already familiar with the loamy hills of the Atlantic Forest which run through 11 Brazilian states—from the state of Rio Grande do Norte in the north to Rio Grande do Sul in the south of the massive country Some 70 percent of all Brazilians—and a third of all South Americans—live within its midst That fact helps explain why 85 percent of its original canopy has been deforested over the past 500 years—a process linked to the history of Cananéia: It was from this small port now marked by cobblestoned streets and crumbling colonial-era homes that the Portuguese launched their first conquest along the coast in 1531 replacing the immense forest they found with cities and farmland making it one of the most successful examples of forest restoration on earth explains that much of the forest regenerated naturally after farmers abandoned rural land for city jobs in the early aughts this doesn’t just happen on its own,” he clarifies “There’s a real movement around the Atlantic Forest right now.” Part of the reason Brazilians are rallying around the Atlantic Forest is because it is, quite literally, in their backyards. The largest stretch of protected land lies just an hour outside of São Paulo the largest city in the Americas with 22 million residents When the pandemic canceled faraway vacations urbanites rediscovered what they’d long overlooked: They listened to the bleating calls of songbirds inhaled the citrus-like fragrance of orchids and many felt a renewed desire to defend the place This protected stretch alone is home to 15,000 species of plants and more than 2,000 species of vertebrates including the critically endangered southern muriqui a potbellied primate that’s the largest monkey in the Americas It spans the high sierras of the Serra do Mar which are speckled with umbrella-like araucaria trees and lowland rainforests The reserve initiative has brought together members of the public and private sector as well as non-government and academic organizations to promote conservation where visitors rappel 130 feet into one of the largest caverns in South America (there are 400 other caves nearby That's just a sliver of what the region has to offer that ecotourism–long an undervalued concept in Brazil by many Brazilians' accounts–has suddenly become a force for good just outside one of the most densely populated urban corridors on earth The local government has invested over $250 million in the region much of which went toward developing sustainable tourism within its patch of the Atlantic Forest which is home to some of the poorest people in Brazil’s richest state they’re passionate about what they have here–they’re proud to live in a place that’s so well-conserved–so we believe ecotourism is a way for them to generate income,” Miranda says “The problem is the region hasn’t got the promotion it deserves and that’s what we’re trying to do now because “If you can take a deep breath and look at where we are, things are getting a little bit better,” he says. “And that should give you cause for hope.” up-to-the-minute voice in all things travel Condé Nast Traveler is the global citizen’s bible and muse We understand that time is the greatest luxury which is why Condé Nast Traveler mines its network of experts and influencers so that you never waste a meal or a hotel stay wherever you are in the world The dates displayed for an article provide information on when various publication milestones were reached at the journal that has published the article activities on preceding journals at which the article was previously under consideration are not shown (for instance submission Science of the Total EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :These metals have different anthropogenic sources such as old mining activities; even after the closure of such mines these sites have continued to release mainly Cu and Pb into the water and sediment (Water – Pb: 0.38–0.59 nmol L−1/Sediment – Cu: 0.94–35.97 mg kg−1 Highest levels of trace elements such as Pb and Zn have also been found in sediment of the northern region of CIELC (Northern – Pb: 0.43 mg g−1 Zn: 137.7 mg g−1/Southern - Pb: 0.25 mg g−1 and Zn bioaccumulation has already been observed in catfish C Coastal and Shelf ScienceCitation Excerpt :Another anthropogenic activity is the industrial and domestic discharge which is usually linked with the occurrences HABs and abnormal elevated DOM concentrations these pollution sources have multiple negative effects on coastal and marine ecosystems (ArandaCirerol et al. The North Arabian (Persian) Gulf (NAG) is one of such marine ecosystems experiencing multiple environmental stressors that have degraded its water quality All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V., its licensors, and contributors. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. For all open access content, the relevant licensing terms apply. Volume 3 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2022.852104 Anthropogenic activities have altered the structure and function of coastal and estuarine ecosystems affecting the animals that occur in these areas Predictive models are useful to evaluate the impact of anthropogenic characteristics over species distribution we used generalized linear models to assess the influence Valo Grande canal which allows fresh water to enter the Estuarine Lagunar Complex of Cananéia A population of this species resides in the study area which comprises many coastal and marine protected areas Abiotic data and information on species occurrence were gathered between January 2012 and November 2014 The predictions resulting from generalized linear models indicated that the discharge of fresh water has a negative influence on the populations of dolphins in all sectors but it is clear that Guiana dolphins presented a heterogeneous distribution within the studied estuary and the areas of higher concentration of individuals deserve greater attention during the elaboration of conservation strategies In 1995, the dam broke, allowing the flow of fresh water, silt and dissolved substances into the Estuarine Lagunar Complex of Cananéia-Iguape, risking its environmental functions of regulation and biodiversity support for the third time (Bonetti-Filho and Miranda, 1997; Bernardes and Miranda, 2001; Souza, 2012) The Complex is characterized by the presence of three islands: Ilha de Cananéia is separated from the mainland by the Sea of Cubatão (Mar de Cubatão) and separated from Ilha Comprida by a channel called Mar Pequeno and, both islands are separated from Ilha do Cardoso by Trapandé Bay (Baía de Trapandé) (Figure 1) Map of the Estuarine Lagunar Complex of Cananéia according to the area's physiographic characteristics In the Cananéia estuary, small groups of Guiana dolphins can be seen daily in several places (Monteiro-Filho, 2000). The species uses this region for feeding and reproduction, and the infants can be seen throughout the year (Monteiro-Filho, 1991; Havukainen et al., 2011; Godoy et al., 2015) The study area covers all the surroundings of Ilha de Cananéia and was divided in four sectors: I Transects were plotted with the aid of GPS TrackMaker 13.5 respecting the distance of 1 km between the transects to avoid oversampling and subsampling we conducted three fieldworks per season in each sector to collect the environmental descriptors and take notes of the dolphins' occurrence Whenever weather conditions changed suddenly during our sampling period and the collected data were discarded if less than half of the transects of the sector had been covered Precipitation in the study area throughout the sampling period The flow of the Valo Grande was estimated at 70% of the flow of the Ribeira river, using data from the meteorological station of the Department of Water and Electricity of the state of São Paulo (DAEE, 2016). Valo Grande canal is located 32 km from the northern part of Ilha de Cananéia (Figure 3) Map indicating the location of the estuary of Valo Grande canal (red star) and the northern part of the sampling area (yellow star) All GLMs were better adjusted by the negative binomial distribution. We chose the most adjusted model using Akaike Information Criterion (AIC, Burnham and Anderson, 2002), in which a lower value (smallest unexplained deviation) means a “better” model (Franklin, 2009) We developed a general model (model 1) with the three predictors a model by sector (model 2) and by season (model 3) using only the daily flow as an explanatory variable The Prediction models were developed with the different values of daily flow in Valo Grande through the R software “prediction” function per sector and season This function shows the average and number of dolphins within each flow value in the different seasons and sectors We conducted a chi-square test to assess whether there was a significant difference in the numbers of dolphins predicted by the model within each flow value in each of the models All statistical tests were performed using R software an average of 38 dolphins per survey (standard deviation = 2.47) The Valo Grande canal flow presented a daily average of 429 m3/s (standard deviation = 146.63) and a maximum of 1,087 m3/s The results of the best model 1 are shown in the table below according to the AIC value: Results show that the occurrence of dolphins throughout the study area was lower in spring and summer, compared to winter (intercept) (Table 1). The opposite was observed in the sectors where there was a significant increase in the occurrence of dolphins (sectors II and III). Also according to the data presented in Table 1 there was a negative significance of Valo Grande daily flow in relation to the number of dolphins in the region Results of the General Model (model 1) GLM using a negative binomial distribution summer is the only season in which the occurrence of dolphins does not correlate to Valo Grande flow and IV) having the flow of the Valo Grande as the explanatory variable: point estimate Statistical summary of GLMs by season (summer winter and spring) having the flow of the Valo Grande as the explanatory variable: point estimate The average number of dolphins predicted by models 2 and 3 for each daily flow of Valo Grande canal (minimum, medium, maximum) per sector and season are represented in Figures 4, 5 Average number of Guiana dolphins predicted for different flows of Valo Grande canal (minimum The results pointed to an increase in the average number of dolphins following a decrease of Valo Grande canal flow the maximum flow was approximately twice the minimum flow while in sector IV it increased approximately four times the increase in the number of dolphins in relation to the increase of flow was not significant The predicted value of the number of dolphins resulting from the predictive models within each season, separated by sector, are presented in Appendix A. The predicted value of the number of dolphins resulting from the predictive models within each sector, separated by season, are presented in Appendix B The results presented in the predictive model confirm that the decrease in flow would increase the dolphins' spatial distribution in the region the flow of Ribeira river is a tensor that modulates the structure of fish communities in the region Although the closure of Valo Grande is expected to bring ecological benefits, it will possibly also have negative social impacts, since floods, which also came to occur with the open Valo, were more frequent when it was closed. These floods affected the local population living on the floodplains, leading to huge financial losses (Souza, 2012; Prado et al., 2019) support to the communities in the floodplain areas of Ribeira river will be necessary A community group may have to be formed with researchers politicians and public prosecutors to discuss this social issue dredging of the original course of the river or installation of a floodgate in the Valo could be proposed In the case of installation of a floodgate the biologists working in the area under recovery will need to be consulted to advise when it could be opened since to re-enter of fresh water in the system can affect directly or indirectly the areas in recovery It is interesting to highlight that the collaboration between managers of Protection Areas and researchers makes the information resulting from research relevant to the management and directly applicable during the decision-making processes. Managers and researchers tend to agree on the importance of most themes and the need to respond to fundamental questions about the main threats to protected areas management (Cvitanovic et al., 2013) we can conclude through the predictive models that the flow coming from Valo Grande influences negatively the distribution of Guiana dolphins in the surroundings of Ilha de Cananéia especially in the areas that are closer to the Valo Grande canal a thorough assessment of the pros and cons regarding the closing of Valo Grande is imminent that the loss of speccies of fauna and flora in certain regions of the estuary will have an inestimable value The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors Ethical review and approval was not required for the animal study because the data were obtained through observations of animals in their natural environment DF and AA contributed to the conception and design of the study DF and HP wrote sections of the manuscript All authors contributed to the manuscript review All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher We would like to thank Instituto de Pesquisas Cananéia (IPeC) and Instituto Aqualie for their logistics support the Graduate Programme in Ecology (PGEcol) at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora DF received financial support from CAPES (2013–2016) and the Programa Petrobras Ambiental The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2022.852104/full#supplementary-material Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Information and likelihood theory: a basis for model selection and inference Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information theoretic approach PubMed Abstract | Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Critical research needs for managing coral reef marine protected areas: Perspectives of academics and managers Google Scholar The influence of topographic and dynamic cyclic variables on the distribution of small cetaceans in a shallow coastal system Google Scholar Google Scholar Evaluation of serum for pathophysiological effects of prolonged low salinity water exposure in displaced bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Population density of Sotalia guianensis (Cetacea: Delphinidae) in the Cananéia region PubMed Abstract | Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Cetacean range and climate in the eastern North Atlantic: future predictions and implications for conservation Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar Google Scholar High site-fidelity in common bottlenose dolphins despite low salinity exposure and associated indicators of compromised health Fine-scale habitat modeling of a top marine predator: do prey data improve predictive capacity Google Scholar Google Scholar Adaptive evolution of the osmoregulation-related genes in cetaceans during secondary aquatic adaptation Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Pavanato H and Andriolo A (2022) Planning Conservation Strategies of Guiana Dolphin Related to Canal Flow and Habitat Changes in the Estuarine Lagunar Complex of Cananéia Received: 19 January 2022; Accepted: 19 April 2022; Published: 25 May 2022 Copyright © 2022 Godoy, Pavanato and Andriolo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited *Correspondence: Daniela Ferro de Godoy, ZGFueWZnb2RveUB5YWhvby5jb20uYnI= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Sharks have turned up as “mystery meat” in Brazil and at some fish-and-chip shops in the U.K Brazil — "For dinner this week I made shark stroganoff,” Ana Alinda says one afternoon as we sit outside her cement home watching a rainstorm flood her yard in this southern Brazilian fishing town closes her eyes for a moment and presses her lips together as if she’s still savoring the meal “I like the taste,” and shark’s cartilaginous “You don’t have to worry about the bones.” though Alinda gets her fish for free as part of her job sorting seafood She glances at a man riding his bicycle nearby holding his umbrella aloft and pedaling in the white rain boots common among fishers “Fishing nets don’t have a sign saying ‘no sharks allowed,’” she says reflecting the views of many people in this community The laws governing shark catch in Brazil are complex hinging on factors including if the shark species was designated as endangered and what equipment was used to capture the animal also told National Geographic that it matters if the shark was targeted or caught unintentionally workers at a fish distributor in the state of Santa Catarina carefully navigate an icy boat hold to remove its cargo—near-threatened blue shark and endangered shortfin mako.Alinda grew up eating shark meat and now four of her sons work as industrial fishers The job’s dangerous: Her eldest son has a scar from a shark bite on his hand And her grandson died on the job six years ago “People should thank God for every fish they get,” she says which are nationally  protected and illegal to catch in Brazil There’s scant monitoring of the country’s 5,000 miles of coastline fishers are often expected to self-report what they’ve caught like these awaiting processing in a freezer room in Santa Catarina but the fins are sold to China and elsewhere.Though workers close to the fishing industry may know that these pictured species are blue shark and shortfin mako it becomes extremely difficult to identify the species after the animals’ skins and fins are removed In the frozen food section of Brazilian supermarkets they’re typically labeled as cação—a term that many Brazilians think means “white fish” or “ocean fish” instead of shark.“Even in places where we have monitoring data it’s probably underreported as fishers are afraid of reporting sharks,” says Martin Dias The country’s shark catches “should be considered highly uncertain and likely to be underestimated by an unknown magnitude,” the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization told National Geographic in a statement “In practical terms,” says shark researcher Patricia Charvet of the Federal University of Ceará “huge quantities of shark are fished and landed using this approach Any boat can bring in tons of shark if they call it bycatch and say that the target species for which they have the license was not found.” Fishers who targeted shark fins for high-value soup also once sliced off the fins and then threw the injured or dead animals back into the water In fact, many Brazilians may not realize that they’re eating shark at all. Despite the substantial known catch and imports, “it’s not a widely preferred fish, so there are a lot of unanswered questions,” says Ana Paula Barbosa Martins a Brazilian postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University studying the shark trade Consumers close to the fishing industry know how to recognize shark meat even if they can’t always identify the exact species Yet when the meat is displayed in supermarkets as steaks or filets or offered on a restaurant menu which many Brazilians think is “ocean fish” or “white fish,” Martins says The words used to describe specific shark species also differ regionally within the country a biologist at the Federal University of Pará The knowledge gap’s a problem: If you don’t know you’re eating shark you can’t make informed choices about the health risks associated with consuming the apex predator a shark researcher at Brazil’s Federal Institute of Education He says it’s “very uncommon” for Brazilians to know about heavy metals that bioaccumulate in large fish as the animal preys on smaller ones or about any other potential contaminants that could put their health at risk She says that despite the data there still aren’t any significant campaigns to inform the public about these issues—which can include increased cancer risk None of the dozen-plus shark consumers I spoke with across three Brazilian states had ever heard of heavy metals in shark and they all said they had no health concerns about eating shark most people told me that shark was the “ideal” fish to serve to infants and the elderly because it’s free of the small bones common in other fish fishers in the southern Brazilian village of Cananéia specialized in shark fishing But that’s changed: Catching and eating shark has become more stigmatized and many species of shark are now protected under national law.Lucas Gabriel Jesus Silva holds a small Brazilian sharpnose shark—a species listed as vulnerable to extinction—that was caught as bycatch he says that as shark protections increased his family gradually abandoned shark fishing and began targeting other types of fish.Nets like these are used to catch fish and small sharks in Cananéia where traditions around catching sharks used to be passed down through the generations the animals may still get caught in nets or on fishers’ hooks and die before they can be released.In Brazil is a Brazilian seafood stew called muqueca It’s so iconic in the southeastern state of Espírito Santo that it’s posted on hotel ads Martins is heading up the Brazilian arm of the work The survey relies partly on people like Alinda who provided the Martins team with some shark meat samples the global survey leader and an ecological statistician at Dalhousie will inform national and international policies on shark conservation Knowing more about what sharks are eaten and where could help country leaders decide which require further protection Going into this project, however, the shark experts knew something many members of the public may not: The trade in shark meat is surprisingly much larger in volume—and value—than the better-known Asian shark fin trade, which claims as many as an estimated 73 million sharks a year Lara Dalla Bernardina and André Luiz Agnoletti eat muqueca, a type of shark stew, at  Mocambo Restaurant on Santa Cruz beach in Aracruz, a city in Espírito Santo.But as Oceana detailed in a recent report weak oversight that doesn’t require sharks to be identified at the species level and poor tracking of shark catches make it difficult to understand the burden the shark meat trade is placing on the animals What’s more, illegal finning for export to Asia still remains a major concern in Brazil, with Brazilian authorities reporting in late June that they’d seized an enormous haul of illegally obtained shark fins came from more than 10,000 blue sharks and shortfin makos Many Brazilian fishers who bring sharks to shore try to process the animals as quickly as possible to make endangered species indistinguishable from those that are allowed a fisheries data specialist for the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund and a shark researcher for the nonprofit Linha D’ Água Institute and then “local traders remove the skin to mislead the government that the species are legal,” he says other shark products are also for sale in Brazil At the famous waterfront marketplace Mercado Ver-o-Peso a man offered to sell me and a group of Brazilian shark researchers a bottle of liquified shark liver—a cure João Bráullio de Luna Sales of the Federal University of Pará bought a sample and sent the product to a lab in Norway for DNA testing “It definitely smells like shark,” he quipped after we went back to his lab and he removed the cap to take a whiff of the rank ammonia brew (Shark blood and tissue generally has a high level of urea which breaks down to ammonia.) The contents of the bottle remained unconfirmed at publication time and Brazil’s a leading importer of the animal Muqueca with cação—shark meat—is on the menu in numerous restaurants in Espírito Santo, including this dish pictured in the foreground, which was photographed at Mocambo Restaurant.“It’s certainly not easy,” says CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero. “There are no borders in the ocean,” so getting meaningful data to prove shark fisheries are non-detrimental “will require international effort to provide these documents,” she says. fishers who snag any protected species are supposed to throw them back adding that even if fishers want to return sharks to the waters they’re often dead by the time fishers haul them up Efforts to help inform Brazilians about what they’re eating have also run into difficulties a Brazilian state located south of Cananéia enacted legislation this year that requires sellers to label shark at stores of the Federal University of Ceará showed me photos from her local grocery store Beneath the product was a price tag and a label that erroneously read “cod fish.” Standing in the freezer room of an industrial fishing operation in Cananéia called Miami Pescados—kept at a frigid four degrees below zero Fahrenheit—I shiver and glance over at four workers who have ice on their eyelashes They’re wearing face mufflers and winter coats The rain and fish goo caking my shoes has already begun to harden Stacked high with their skin attached but their fins and heads removed The company purchased the sharks without their fins since those parts are immediately shipped to Asia These pallets hold some two tons of frozen blue shark “If people want it frozen we follow the market and if people want it fresh I sell it fresh,” he says Yet shark makes up less than 5 percent of their business overall with only six to nine tons of the animal sold monthly Of the hundreds of seafood products they sell their biggest commodity is octopus—beloved in Brazil and much of the company’s shark isn’t caught locally—it’s imported from China a town whose name means “river of sharks” in the Indigenous Tupi language I meet a man who’s searching for mako to barbeque that day He moves from one artisanal fish stall to the next; he doesn’t want the darker meat of the hammerhead that’s on offer “It tastes too much like ammonia—like urine,” he says of the legal issues around fishers capturing one species versus another At lunch one day I have another encounter with mako It’s the shark species listed only as cação at Pirão Accompanied by shark expert Jones Santander-Neto I arrive at the eatery during its lunch rush on a weekday in April allows us to visit the kitchen and watch his staff preparing customers’ orders of muqueca the iconic Brazilian stew that often features cação I’d read and heard from numerous Brazilian fans allows the flavor of the fish (or shark) to shine through I watch—and try to stay out of the way of hot pots and scalding dishes—as chef Sandra Helena Barbosa quickly pours oil and a type of orange-red seed paste called annatto into a special clay pot that she leaves to bubble over high heat for about 15 minutes has owned a popular stand selling fish in Cananéia Customers sometimes drive several hours for her fresh seafood such as the Brazilian sharpnose shark Silva's reaching for here.Shark had been cut into small chunks on a nearby countertop—mako she said—but the order she’s preparing calls for grouper and shrimp As the soup bubbles and the odor mixes with that of all the other tasty seafood being prepared my stomach starts to grumble under photographs of celebrities that have previously dined here Tavares tells us that muqueca with grouper is the restaurant’s most popular item People know that cação at the restaurant is shark “But they like it because it’s cheaper than the other dishes and because it has no bones so it’s easier to eat than other fish,” he says He gets about 400 customers a day on weekdays and many more on weekends Santander-Neto and I eventually order the grouper and shrimp muqueca The bones in the dish are comforting: Santander-Neto assures me that their presence means we are not eating any shark The fishy flavor resonates clearly through the simple not all Tavares customers know what they’re getting when they order cação: The next day I chat with Luis Hernandez a regular at the restaurant who orders muqueca with cação a couple times each month His dark eyebrows shoot up when I tell him that cação is actually shark “I always just thought it was fish,” he says “I’d feel bad if it was an endangered shark.” In late May—after I’d visited the restaurant and spoke with fish sellers and consumers—new Brazil-wide protections went into force that make it illegal to catch more species of shark—including the endangered shortfin mako that many Brazilians prefer. The likely effects of this change remain murky. Paulo Roberto Santos dos Santos says he’s skeptical the change will truly help shark conservation, since he notes species like hammerhead are already illegal to catch and are still widely available.  Moreover, if the restrictions are enforced, “mako sharks are fighters,” he says, and they will be so stressed and exhausted fighting the line or the net that they’ll die anyway after they’re caught.  Martins, who’s heading the Brazilian meat survey, says she doesn’t oppose all shark fishing: Since people need to eat and not every species is endangered, some catch should remain. Yet prohibitions that are based on strong science, she adds, need to be part of the solution.  She and Santos agree that partnering with fishers will be essential to helping sharks. Specific programs, Santos says, could include sewing gillnets together with smaller gaps so sharks wouldn’t get caught and teaching fishers how to properly release sharks caught as bycatch.  Davis, the government scientist, has other ideas too. Prohibiting captures may help sharks, she says, but she also suggests educating fishers on using “friendlier” hooks and telling schoolkids about the meaning of cação so they can tell their parents and urge them not to buy it. Conservation can take many different forms, she says, and informing more people about the health risks of eating shark is important, she adds. If more people knew the facts and stopped eating the meat, eventually, she hopes, it’d lose value and be less attractive to catch altogether. Science of the Total EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :The Total n-Alk concentration ranged from 0.17 to 1.67 μg g−1 (mean = 0.74 ± 0.42) considering the five-sediment cores studied (n = 50) These levels are considered low when compared to samples from petroleum-polluted sites and urbanized coastal areas (e.g. 2019) and are similar to those found in unpolluted or pristine sediments (e.g. Sediments from Demay Point presented the relative higher mean concentrations of Total n-Alk (DEM: 1.28 ± 0.21 μg g−1) followed by Botany Point (BTP: 0.70 ± 0.37 μg g−1) Marine Pollution BulletinCitation Excerpt :The relative concentrations of parent and alkyl-PAHs can be used to distinguish their origin (Yunker et al. The diagnostic ratios for identifying sources of PAHs (petrogenic and diagenetic) are well established for sediment (Yunker et al. 2002) and there are also some studies that assess the origin of PAHs in organisms such as bivalves and fish (Huckins et al. this literature review showed that the use of diagnostic ratios for PAHs source identification in mammals is incipient but also because these processes rates are most likely different among the compounds (Neff All content on this site: Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V. Regional Studies in Marine ScienceCitation Excerpt :The circulation of water in the CIELC is mainly driven by the action of tidal waves (Miyao et al. and the contribution of freshwater occurs through the Ribeira de Iguape river beyond metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) assessment bioaccumulation and effects in species such as Cynoscion guatucupa Genidens barbus and other fish species with ecological and commercial importance (Mishima and Tanji it is very important to improve the knowledge on feeding and plastic ingestion in commercial and non-commercial fish from this important marine protected area Marine Environmental ResearchCitation Excerpt :Thus a wide tolerance to pH variation represents a crucial physiological trait for the survival of Bostrychia spp in estuarine ecosystems such as mangrove forests pH values between 5 and 9 were already recorded in the estuary of the algal collection site in TSA (Rodrigues et al. as well as pH values between 6.5 and 8.3 were observed in the estuary of the algal collection site in WTSA (Amaral et al. By being tolerant to lower pH and using CO2 as main source of inorganic carbon for photosynthesis (Mercado and Niell both species from tropical and subtropical mangroves increased their LMWC contents under ocean acidification treatments Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and EcologyCitation Excerpt :Estuarine pH is an environmental condition that fluctuates daily (2021) recorded for the collection area in TSA estuarine pH values between 5 and 9 and for the collection area in WTSA there were already recorded estuarine pH values between 6.50 and 8.35 (Amaral et al. at lower pH levels is an important physiological property for its survival in estuarine environments Science of the Total EnvironmentCitation Excerpt :In this regard invasive species and pollution are among the top five threats (Adame et al. Several studies have reported contamination impacts within Ramsar sites especially from developing countries in Asia Africa and Latin America (Gusso-Choueri et al. A review assessing chemical pollution inside Latin American protected areas has detected that the most of performed studies were typically limited to trace metals Since I fell in love with portraiture I've daydreamed about traveling the world to take pictures of people. It's not a unique dream and it's not an overly farfetched dream, but it isn't a job that often comes up. One of the ways in which artists get commissioned to do something along those lines, however, is the Lavazza Calendar and Steve McCurry behind the camera for them in recent years and this year The pictures are -- without question -- utterly stunning What makes this particular calendar project so great is the inclusion of Dudes with Cameras and the BTS videos What strikes you first with this series of videos is the sheer work and coordination that goes in to such a task It's far flung from five star suites and champagne brunches and the conditions at times are clearly testing I think I might be a little on edge working with equipment that expensive in the rain and the dust it's the conditions and the weather that help to give such a great sense of atmosphere to the images (in conjunction with a fog machine admittedly) Self Portrait With Jesse Korman and Caleb Adams - Villa Rica “From Father to Son” (Used with permission from Joey.L) “From Father to Son” (Used with permission from Joey L) One element to almost every image that is particularly noteworthy is the capturing of the light It seems to be far too often that images of distant communities and travel portraiture are assaulted by prevalent strobes and the resulting images Joey's images for the calendar avoid that and appear to use strobes as fill lights on their subjects rather than ways to light the whole scene The BTS videos by Dudes with Cameras is a four part series walking you through each shoot and process involved in this calendar they are all well worth watching A lot of the shots are achieved through relatively modest methods and without enormous quantities of gear That could be down to the location of the shoots being difficult to take a lot to or it could be so the shoots themselves were more mobile and comfortable; either way Joey and the team have created a spectacular set of images for Lavazza whose previous calendars most certainly added large amounts of pressure You can watch the four BTS videos through the links below as well as checking out Joey L's portfolio and Dude with Camera's channel which are well worth your time Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 Joey L's Portfolio Dude with Cameras Robert K Baggs is a professional portrait and commercial photographer Robert has a First-Class degree in Philosophy and a Master's by Research In 2015 Robert's work on plagiarism in photography was published as part of several universities' photography degree syllabuses Photographer Ricardo Ghion recently reached out to share some truly stunning photos he captured that are both quite rare and incredibly difficult to capture: nightscapes of bioluminescence shining beneath the Milky Way Ghion tells PetaPixel that the photos were captured in the mangroves of Cananeia Fishermen leave their canoes in what Ghion describes as “artisanal marinas,” which makes for an ideal shooting location capturing photos like the ones you see here is no easy task “Bioluminescence here is a rare phenomenon it only happens on cold days and with a waning moon and only when the water is moving,” he explains being careful not to drop everything inside the mangrove!” he had to go into the water “up to my waist.” He also had to work in total darkness since that’s the only situation where it’s even possible to capture the milky way and bioluminescence in the same shot Here’s a closer look at the beautiful photos he got for his trouble: All of the photos were edited in Lightroom and Topax Denoise AI To see more of Ghion’s beautiful photography, or learn about his work teaching workshops related to photography in and around Cananeia, give the photographer a follow on Instagram Image credits: All photos by Ricardo Ghion and used with permission Become a PetaPixel Member and access our content ad-free Crustaceans along the São Paulo coast are accumulating heavy metals and exhibiting organic changes Eduardo CesarLife among the mangroves: barnacles and oysters clinging to red mangrove trunks…Eduardo Cesar biologist Marcelo Pinheiro is standing in front of his laboratory and talking about how he helped build this campus of São Paulo State University (Unesp) in São Vicente where he has been a professor for 10 years he notes that he has probably opened and examined 12,000 mangrove crabs since 1998 but he won’t venture to eat any dishes made with the crustaceans from the area around Santos and São Vicente Pinheiro and his team have confirmed that four of the six heavy metals they have analyzed—cadmium lead and mercury—have occurred at levels that exceed the legal limits in samples of water sediment and the crabs that inhabit the mangrove areas in the municipalities of Cubatão In areas with higher concentrations of these metals the crabs displayed a higher proportion of cells with genetic alterations associated with deformities According to a survey described in the PhD dissertation presented by Luís Felipe de Almeida Duarte in May 2014 the only areas free of heavy metals were in the municipality of Peruíbe near the Jureia-Itatins Ecological Station Pinheiro would not hesitate to order a plate of crabs or crab stew which has purple claws and a generally sky blue or yellowish carapace is found in mangrove areas along the Brazilian coast between the states of Amapá and Santa Catarina Degradation of the mangroves and intensive exploitation have caused a decline in production The Ministry of the Environment recorded 6,800 metric tons in 2007 less than half the 15,000 metric tons caught in 1994 This decline has been accompanied by a high rate of loss due to poor transport conditions which the agricultural research center Embrapa Meio Norte says could be reduced from 55% to 5% by using plastic boxes that have layers of foam moistened with estuarine water water is the principal vehicle for the dispersion of metals the water available for human consumption is collected mainly in Billings Dam and the Pilões River although other rivers on the Paulista Plateau supply the region’s estuaries It wouldn’t surprise me if it reaches the coast contaminated,” he says but I don’t know if they allow more detailed analyses of the waste discharged into the rivers in that municipality.” In Iguape the source of heavy metals is the mine tailings that come down the Ribeira de Iguape River few municipalities in the Santos Metropolitan Region treat all their residential and industrial waste before discharging it into the ocean and plastic packaging and other kinds of trash are strewn all over the mangrove areas on the nearby islands which are protected by law from human occupation Eduardo Cesar… and a mangrove crabEduardo Cesar where the Unesp team did not expect to find contaminated crabs a possible additional source of pollution was detected could be releasing undesirable chemicals into the Itapanhaú River “There is no longer any grease leaking out,” assures Marisa Roitman She says that an investigation is being conducted to see if the site needs to be decontaminated “There is no industrial activity that could have caused heavy metal pollution in Bertioga,” she notes Pinheiro says he did not have access to a survey of industries in Bertioga there is uncertainty about the sources of the pollution “We still don’t know what concentrations of heavy metals there are in the sediments in our state.” uncontrolled pollution from an unknown source is changing the ecological balance of the mangrove forest the least poetic face of the Atlantic Forest The mangrove forest is rich and pulsating with life It protects the coastline from erosion and acts as a nursery for fish and crustaceans The organic matter concentrated there supplies food to 50% to 80% of the world’s fish But the area is also ugly and foul-smelling because of the large amount of organic matter mixed in with its fine sediments “Any change in pH or salinity,” Pinheiro says “triggers the release of the chemical compounds imprisoned in the sediments.” The Unesp team found that the mangrove crabs from the polluted mangroves in Cubatão have 2.6 times more cells with micronuclei—encapsulated DNA fragments—than the ones in Jureia and therefore the greater the risk that the creatures will have deformities Pinheiro collected a very different-looking mangrove crab in Cubatão; one of its claws had five fixed fingers instead of one Samples of hemolymph examined under a microscope indicated the possible cause of the deformity: the animal had 11 micronucleated cells in each group of 11,000 cells studied “We still don’t know the frequency of deformities in the population but we already know that in Cubatão it is higher than in the other areas studied The history of pollution in the region is still the most obvious explanation,” he says Eduardo CesarTrash piles up in a mangrove area in São Vicente on the coast of São Paulo StateEduardo Cesar is investigating the number of micronuclei in two other species of mangrove crabs: Aratus pisonii which lives in trees and feeds on green leaves; and Goniopsis cruentata also known by the names maria-mulata and aratu red legs and a more wide-ranging diet that includes smaller crabs The preliminary data show that the frequency of alterations has remained stable: they are more common in animals in polluted areas than in the ones in preserved mangrove swamps Other groups of marine organisms exhibited similar alterations a professor at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) and Santa Cecília University (Unisanta) brought mussels (Perna perna) from a farm in Caraguatatuba mercury and chromium—the latter above the maximum recommended for human consumption oysters of the genus Crassostrea brought from a farm in Paranaguá exhibited more DNA alterations than normal after being kept for a month in the Santos estuary he found 10 times more micronuclei than was detected in the same species in Cananeia out of 10 snook collected in a coastal region near a residential area in São Vicente alterations like this are probably caused by the dumping of improperly treated residential and industrial waste The harmful changes caused by these modifications to the cells of crabs and other shellfish and fish also mirror changes in the structures of the communities of living creatures that inhabit the mangrove forest Environmental degradation could promote predominance for some groups of species in polluted mangrove areas ants of the genus Crematogaster are predominant the foot-washing ants of the genus Solenopsis are the most predominant The vegetation also appears to undergo changes While walking through the mangroves on one of the islands in São Vicente Pinheiro squats down to collect a bent propagule—an embryo—of the genus Rhizophora mangle Pinheiro asked himself this question in 2012 when he found a one-centimeter-long parasitic crustacean (isopod) in the branquial cavity of a mangrove crab collected in São Vicente while analyzing 15 specimens caught in Cubatão Pinheiro believes that pollution may have compromised the crabs’ resistance to infestation by parasites and other organisms have led to losses of up to 80% of production in areas such as the Northeast since the early 1990s Eduardo CesarCrab with deformed claw collected in CubatãoEduardo Cesar Owing to either lack of time or not knowing whom to contact the researchers seldom visit the government environmental management agencies to present their research findings which could encourage measures designed to prevent any fall-off in the production or quality of fish and other organisms researchers and representatives of government agencies and crab pickers have established limits for the exploitation of mangrove crabs in Brazil Only adults with a carapace wider than six centimeters may be collected Males and females may not be caught during the early reproductive period from October 1 to November 30 nor may females be taken during the month of December Females with eggs are spared throughout the year One current source of concern is the possibility of overexploitation and an even larger consequent decline in production since it is a species that takes 10 years to grow to full size a proposed national plan for exploitation of the mangrove crab the blue land crab (Cardisoma guanhumi)—another species found in mangrove areas and the Atlantic blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) announced in 2011 by the Ministry of the Environment suggests a variety of measures such as pollutant monitoring decontamination of estuaries and mangrove areas government representatives and consumers are able to organize and implement these measures perhaps there won’t be a shortage of mangrove crabs—free of heavy metals—in the coming years Scientific article PINHEIRO, M. A .A. et al. Habitat monitoring and genotoxicity in Ucides cordatus(Crustacea: Ucididae), as tools to manage a mangrove reserve in southeastern Brazil © Revista Pesquisa FAPESP - All rights reserved Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466