Why fish aratu?<\/strong><\/p>\n\u0093Crab brings in more money but is hard work; more suitable for men! Blue crab is lighter but it only appears from time to time. Aratu is present all year round. It suits women more. Men don’t like it, they prefer the crab.<\/p>\n
Attracting the aratu is an activity best done alone, and so the fisherwomen separate while fishing. Just as the movement of the human body drives the aratu away, certain stimuli attract them, including bait – usually small crabs called almofala (Aratus pisonii), the bark of trees, and also certain sounds \u0096 for example, the sound of whistling. Many fisherwomen have reported that in the mangroves as they fish in silence for aratu, they feel as if all their problems disappear. The stillness necessary to attract the creatures appears to bring peace into the lives of the aratu women as well.<\/p>\n
Fifty aratus are needed for a yield of half a kilogram of processed product. Daily production varies between half and two kilos a day in winter, and may reach up to eight kilos a day during the best fishing period, which is summer. Journey time to reach fishing spots in the mangrove may take four to six hours.<\/p>\n
Much more work and time are required in the post harvest phase. The aratus are cooked right after fishing, and then their shells are removed. This work may go on well into the night with a kilo of aratu taking up to two hours to process.<\/p>\n
The price of a kilo depends on the time of year. In the summer, when production is higher, the price is around R$ 20.00 (5 USD).<\/p>\n
The residual shells are used as fertiliser and chicken feed.<\/p>\n
The women report that yields have been declining. In the last 20 years, the practice of night fishing using lights, carried out mainly by men, although prohibited in the Management Agreement of the Protected Marine Area Canavieiras Resex, has grown.<\/p>\n
\u0093When people heard about COVID-19, they thought it was a complicated flu, she said. \u0093Consequently, to prevent it, many people started to drink homemade or bottled tea. The teas are mixed with ginger, lemon and garlic. However, the most commonly used concoctions are the \u0091bottled’ ones: you take a bottle and put in it some caranapa\u00faba bark (Aspidosperma nitidum), some umiri bark (Humiria balsamifera), some saracura mir\u00e1 (Ampelozizyphus amazonicus) and let it sit overnight. In the Ro\u00e7ado community, they also use tauari bark (Couratari tauari). These are all very bitter plants, and must have some chemistry because they make the body strong.<\/p>\n
The author would like to thank: all the fishers and leaders who opened their fishing universe to her; the managers of the Canavieiras Resex; the Amex \u0096 Mother Association of the Resex, and finally, all the fisherwomen of Puxim do Sul, represented by Elialda Avelino, who welcomed the author into her world.<\/p>\n
[Note: The images are part of the research study \u0091Political ecology of crustacean fishing in mangroves in northeastern Brazil’, which was carried out over the last three years (2017-2020) by the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation in the Protected Marine Areas for Sustainable Use (Resex) in Northeast Brazil. This essay is based in the Resex of Canavieiras, Southern Bahia, Brazil.]<\/p>\n
Preparation and arranging the material. It is a long journey to find the ideal fishing spot, typically, a mangrove that has still \u0093not been fished, that is, it was not harvested the previous night.<\/p>\n
Preparation and arranging the material. Aratu fishing is carried out mostly by women, for whom it is a source of income, allowing them to get by without formal employment, and offering a certain freedom in their lives.<\/p>\n
Entering the mangrove, choosing the fishing location. Entering the mangrove requires knowledge and attention. You must wear special clothes to protect yourself from insects; special socks and shoes to facilitate walking and balancing on the roots of the mangrove<\/p>\n
Aratu are fast moving crustaceans and require stillness and patience to capture. They move with the tide, and to catch them, fisherwomen need to have an intimate knowledge of the local mangroves and tides.<\/p>\n
How to attract aratu?. Many fisherwomen have reported that in the mangroves as they fish in silence for aratu, they feel as if all their problems disappear. The stillness necessary to attract the creatures appears to bring peace into the lives of the aratu women as well<\/p>\n
The fisherwomen enter the lagoon and begin to move ahead in a circle as they fish. If there are men in the area, the women usually move to another location<\/p>\n
Post harvest work. Much more work and time are required in the post harvest phase. The aratus are cooked right after fishing, and then their shells are removed. This work may go on well into the night with a kilo of aratu taking up to two hours to process<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":44,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"region":[],"source":[],"country":[],"state":[],"city":[],"yemaya_category":[5283],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yemaya\/46033"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yemaya"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/yemaya"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yemaya\/46033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66090,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yemaya\/46033\/revisions\/66090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=46033"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=46033"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=46033"},{"taxonomy":"state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/state?post=46033"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=46033"},{"taxonomy":"yemaya_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yemaya_category?post=46033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}