Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ocean and Coastal Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ocecoaman Evaluation of an unreported and unregulated sea cucumber fishery in eastern Brazil Isabela de Abreu Rodrigues Ponte * , Caroline Vieira Feitosa Instituto de Ciências do Mar, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil ARTICLE INFO Keywords: CPUE Fishing effort Size at capture Final yield Coastal communities ABSTRACT Holothuria grisea is abundant in Brazil, however there is only one study on this species. This study aimed to characterize the sea cucumber fishery in the State of Ceará, Brazil, through the evaluation of the capture, length classes most susceptible to catch, fishing effort as well as the processing, stakeholders characterization, income and marketing of the final product. The study was carried out in two fishing communities (Xavier and Camocim) from August 2015 to July 2016. Processing is performed in four stages: evisceration, cooking, draining and drying. The fishing cycle occurs in spring tides. The annual catch was 12,341 kg, which was totally commer- cialized. The t-test shows that there was no significant difference for capture per unit effort (CPUE) and fishing effort between communities. The processed individuals showed an average loss of 79% weight and 49% length. 66% of the captured organisms were below the size at first maturity. This activity plays an important role as complementary income. However, this is an unreported and unregulated activity and an intense fishing pressure can lead to overexploitation of this resource. This study is essential to not only the knowledge of the dynamics of this activity, but also as an attempt to contribute to a future fishery management. 1. Introduction Invertebrates represent one of the most important economic re- source for the coastal fishery (Anderson et al., 2011b). In Brazil, sea cucumber fisheries is practiced by coastal communities (Leite-Castro et al., 2016), however, is an unregulated activity, therefore, it is not supervised by the state or federal government. The sea cucumber fishing in Brazil could play an important role in economy, as a new source of seafood (Lima et al., 2001). However, nothing is known about the impact of this activity, number of animals collected, the economic importance and the market route. Although the highest diversity of sea cucumber is recorded in tro- pical shallow waters (Hadel et al., 1999), in Brazil, only 32 species of holothuroides were recorded (Tiago and Ditadi, 2001). Along the Bra- zilian coast, Holothuria grisea Selenka, 1867 is the most abundant spe- cies from the Northeast region (2ºS 41ºW) to the South of Santa Cat- arina (29ºS 49ºW), found in intertidal zones, associated with rocks and in contact with the sandy substrate (Tommasi, 1969; Mendes et al., 2006; Rocha, 2006). A survey carried out in Brazil Northeast indicates Ceará as the state with the highest densities of H. grisea in intertidal and in shallow sub- merged areas (Souza Junior et al., 2017), which favors the sea cu- cumber traditional fishery with captures through manual collection or snorkelling (Choo, 2008a, 2008b). Sea cucumber fisheries can provide extra income for fishermen of coastal communities in Brazil (Leite-Castro et al., 2016) and char- acterizes the species as a new Brazilian fishery resource for the sea cucumber market in the world (Souza Junior et al., 2017). However, reviews about sea cucumber at a global level (Toral-Granda, 2008; Anderson et al., 2011b; Purcell et al., 2013) do not provide fisheries information and the conservation status of sea cucumbers in Brazil. Therefore, aiming to minimize the gap in information about the topic, the present study characterized the sea cucumber fishery (Holothuria grisea) in the extreme west of the State of Ceará, Brazil, through the evaluation of the capture, identification of length classes most susceptible to capture, estimation of the fishing effort employed, as well as the resource processing, stakeholder characterization, income and marketing of the final product. 2. Material and methods 2.1. Study site The study was carried out in the State of Ceará, Northeastern Brazil, where Holothuria grisea is the only species captured in this sea cucumber fishery and is practiced by the Xavier and Camocim communities in six https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2018.09.016 Received 15 January 2018; Received in revised form 18 September 2018; Accepted 26 September 2018 * Corresponding author. E-mail address: iarp.bio@gmail.com (I.d.A.R. Ponte). Ocean and Coastal Management 167 (2019) 1–8 0964-5691/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T