Journal of Marine Science: Research & Development
Open Access

Abstract

Mangroves are productive coastal ecosystems that form an ideal habitat for many fishery species, as the crab Ucides cordatus. In Brazil this crab holds socio-economic importance for artisanal fishery, but declines on its productivity have been putting this fishery at risk. To contribute to a sustainable fishery, this study determined and mapped the more suitable mangroves for the conservation and fishery of this crab in the S?o Francisco Estuary (northeastern Brazil). We applied a Multi-Criteria Evaluation, considering the Weighted Linear Combination and the Analytical Hierarchy Process. Ten criteria were used: five biotic of the crab population parameters, three related to land use and cover and two social. Satellite images, remote sensing techniques, (e.g. vegetation index, pan sharpening, supervised classification, distance operators) and field data were used to spatialize the criteria. The mangroves more suitable for the conservation of U. cordatus (9.4 km2) are those close to the river mouth, showing high density and frequency of non-commercial sized crabs, low density of commercial crabs, small crabs and low degree of use for fishery. The mangroves more suitable for the crab fishery (10.2 km2) are those located far from to river mouth and close to the fishery villages, showing high density and frequency of commercial sized crabs, low density of non-commercial crabs, big crabs, medium to high degree of use. This information can aid government agencies in delineating extractive and fishery exclusion areas, as stated by the National Management Plan for this crab, thus contributing with strategies to achieve a sustainable fishery.

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