Mining the Gold of the Sea

Abstract

"The artisanal fishery in Brazil contributes to over 50 per cent of the total capture of fish and crustaceans, and accounts for about 90 per cent of the country's fishers and fleet. Artisanal fishing dates back to before the European discovery of Brazil around 1500, as indigenous peoples explored the coastal areas for their subsistence, using rafts made of wooden logs tied together with ropes. The rafts were called piperi or igapeba. When the Portuguese fleet landed on the shores of Brazil in 1500, they christened the rafts jangada, after janga or jangadum, similar craft they had seen in India, in the province of Goa."