![]() It runs programs on everything from sanitation, to community markets to higher education, innovating along the way. All the production is bought by the Association of Rural Producers of Carauari, known as Asproc, the region´s umbrella organization, so the fishers are never at the mercy of middlemen.įounded by rubber tappers who wanted to liberate themselves from slave-like labor conditions, Asproc has grown to be one of the most important grassroots entities in the entire Amazon. ![]() There they are gutted, a task that is mostly done by women, and put on ice. The pirarucus are then taken from the lakes to a large boat by the Jurua River. When it´s very heavy, two or three men are required to do the job. When the fishers catch one, they haul in the net and club the fish in the head. The holes are large enough to allow smaller specimens to go through, as taking fish under five feet is prohibited. To catch pirarucu, fishermen use special, stronger nets they weave themselves. Another share of the money goes to the community members who participate in the fishing. This year, the goal is to buy a solar panel system to replace the diesel-fueled generator. ![]() Pirarucu bring money into the community, she said. “Our pirarucu is so tasty, everybody that eats it falls in love with it and wants more,” Rosilda da Cunha, a sister of Manoel who lives in Sao Raimundo, told the AP. Most belong to Cunha´s extended family, whose ancestors arrived in the region from the impoverished and drought-ravaged Northeast during the rubber boom to work as tappers. Picture a few dozen houses, with running water, connected by well-maintained wooden footbridges amid açai palm trees. It does that with a big splash, flashing its red tail out of the water.Īn AP team accompanied the first of the seven days of fishing in Sao Raimundo. Fishing quotas are possible due to another remarkable characteristic of the pirarucu: It is one of the few fish species in the world that surfaces to breathe. Pirarucu fishing is done once a year, around September, the period of lowest water. You have been on this river for days now, and you have not seen any fishing boats except the ones from our organizations. “We managed to get rid of fishing companies and invading fishermen by monitoring and management. “Javari is a portrait of what Medio Jurua was like in the 1980s,” Manoel Cunha, the main leader of the local rubber tappers, told The Associated Press during a boat trip to Sao Raimundo, his home community and one of the ones that takes part in regulated fishing. Brazil´s conservation agency issued 1,160 infraction notices for illegal fishing - a quarter of all infractions - over a recent five-year period. It’s the second most frequent environmental crime on protected land, after logging, according to an academic study based on official data. Two local fishermen confessed to the crimes. The backdrop of that tragedy is a decades-old dispute between Indigenous communities and former rubber tappers who were hired by local businessmen to do illegal fishing, targeting mostly the pirarucu.
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