Um ponto de esperança na conservação dos peixes no monumento natural das Ilhas Cagarras e águas do entorno/RJ

• Autor(a) principal: Machado, Augusto Alves
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (riUfes)
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.ufes.br/handle/10/17853
• topic: Ciências Ambientais; Palavra-chave

Marine protected areas are legally designated spaces that aim to conserve marine environment and its ecosystems services. In this context, the Cagarras Islands Natural Monument (MONA Cagarras) is a no-take zone located at Rio de Janeiro City, RJ. Due to their high species richness and abundance, the Cagarras Islands and the surrounding waters were recognized as a Hope Spot for global marine conservation. Among the forms of life in this region, fish are essential components in tropical marine trophic food web, being important in the dispersion of nutrients and providing food and income for millions of people worldwide. Despite its relevance, the fish fauna of MONA Cagarras has been suffering from severe impacts, such as pollution, overfishing, marine litter, dispersion of invasive species and others. In light of this, the present thesis aimed to evaluate the effects of MONA Cagarras on the conservation of fish fauna. In this study, during the years 2020 and 2022, were carried out samplings on fish communities, marine litter, and non-native species in MONA Cagarras and the surrounding islands using non-destructive techniques. During this period, 576 Underwater Visual Censuses (UVC) and 288 Submersible Rotating Videos (SRV) were carried out inside and outside of the protected areas. In this way, this study recorded through field sampling, bibliographic review and fishing landing data more than 282 fish species, including more than 21 new records for this area. From this total, about the 6% are endemic to the Brazilian province and 10.5% are in one of the IUCN threatened categories. Furthermore, the results highlighted plastic as one of the main threats to the health of fish fauna, being the main category encountered in the region. This study also identified about 15 non-native species, including four new records for the study area. Among them, the Sun Coral was widely reported on the sampled islands and with evidence of causing negative effects on the reef fish community. However, even in this scenario, the median values of fish richness (8,0 – SRV / 12,0 - UVC) and density (70,74 individuals per 100m² - SRV) within MONA Cagarras were higher when compared to the surrounding islands. The Hope Spot recognition itself will not be enough to protect this area, it is necessary to work together between the management of MONA Cagarras and different stakeholders to mitigate negative impacts. Finally, it is expected that the results of this thesis will contribute to improving the environmental quality of MONA Cagarras and that it will become better known and valued by everyone