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From São Paulo to Sayward: Travels of a Trainee April 25, 2005

Mussel-bound in Brazil August 30, 2004

Jumping Catfish: Brazilian Fishes Get Help Hurdling Dams June 22, 2004

Fisheries Policing More Than Just Saying No January 16, 2004

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From São Paulo to Sayward: Travels of a Trainee

April 25, 2005

 

By Brian Harvey - President, World Fisheries Trust

Special to AquaNews

 

Bernardo in the process of cold acclimation. George Lake Hatchery, Vancouver Island. Photo:  Judy Knutson.

Bernardo Sardão was 22 years old and tired. He had traveled more than 24 hours from São Paulo, Brazil, to Victoria, B.C., including an eight-hour layover in Toronto. I picked him out instantly at the airport, slight and slumped beside a backpack nearly as big as he was. Despite his exhaustion, his smile was door-opening and unmistakably Brazilian. It was too late for a hotel, so we took him home, and he talked non-stop until we shoved him into bed at midnight and went off to reassess the whole situation.

 

This is how it is with trainees on international projects. For the longest time, they are just names on an email; annoying little collections of dates and qualifications and interests and special needs to be shepherded through the visa system, insured and set up with a training experience that is supposed to make the world a better place. When you meet them, the file becomes human, and everything changes.  

 

Bernardo slept until 3:00 the next afternoon, by which time we had cancelled his hotel reservation and decided to keep him. In two days, this kid from a city of 15 million people would board a bus up the inside coast of Vancouver Island to Campbell River. There, a pickup truck from Stolt Sea Farms would pluck him off the beaten track and deposit him in the town of Sayward for a month. Two hundred people, three pubs, a forest industry employer folding its tents, and a view of Kelsey Bay to die for. Sending him off without a little home cooking suddenly seemed the wrong thing to do.  

 

A Good Candidate

 

Bernardo was finishing his degree in aquaculture studies, and his supervisors in Brazil judged him a good candidate to bring back first-hand knowledge of aquaculture practices in Canada. Given the right person, a training trip like this can shape an entire career. Good trainees become reliable technical conduits for decades: a major payoff for a small development investment. Bad ones - and every project has its share of those - are a waste of money, or worse. Some spend more time shopping than learning; the occasional one will hoard contacts to advance their own career; and in rare cases, culture shock is so unhinging the person beats a fast retreat home.

 

Not Bernardo. He already had eight weeks at a salmon farm in Chile under his belt, and he had reached that posting by bus from São Paulo (if you think that's a piece of cake, look at a map). In Chile, the hatchery manager only had one question for Bernardo: can you blow away seals with a shotgun?

 

The manager in Sayward was better. Judy Knutson issued him with rain gear, a monstrous pickup truck, and a standing invitation to her home. A local B&B gave him a spectacular deal on room and board, and he went to work scrubbing fry troughs in the hatchery, slinging feed pellets into fibreglass tanks, and generally wringing every possible lesson out of every minute. By the time we drove up to visit three weeks later, he had narrowly missed hitting an elk at 2:00 AM after learning the hard way not to look at a logger's girlfriend in the Salmon Inn, and his eyes were permanently saucered.

 

In the following three weeks Bernardo did an egg-take at a salmon farm in Tofino, spent a miserable five-day cold snap at an oyster-packing site in Fanny Bay and toured the backstage pumps and filters at the Vancouver Aquarium. He also had discussions with both the David Suzuki and Raincoast Foundations about the environmental risks of fish farming - the thing he really came to B.C. to learn about. He held his own, too, wondering politely what would happen if salmon farming were pushed out of B.C. and simply migrated south to Chile, where he knew environmental controls are practically nonexistent. We Canadians thought that was a pretty good question.

 

Bernardo is back in Brazil now, and when I was in São Paulo recently it was his turn to meet me at the airport. He was in full job-search mode, shaking off reverse culture shock, fretting about taking a job in the fish-farming business versus investing in a second scientific degree, and impatient to add his voice to the debate on aquaculture in Brazil. I attacked the four-cheese pizza he had bought us and asked, "But it wasn't all perfect, was it?  Surely there's something you don't miss about Canada?"

 

Bernardo gave me the grin. "Only the cold," he said.

 

 

Click here to send Bernardo Sardão an email.

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Mussel-bound in Brazil
August 30, 2004

By Theo Harvey, Special to AquaNews

Golden mussels introduced to Brazil threaten to overwhelm aquatic ecosystems

An introduced species is like a virus. Once it finds its way into a host ecosystem – often with human help – it multiplies and often incapacitates the very environment it feeds on.

The best-known example of an introduced species in North American waterways is the zebra mussel, which rapidly became an environmental disaster in the Great Lakes, multiplying into great mats that clog water intakes and wreak havoc on industrial cooling systems.

But in Brazil, if you turn on a cooling tap in a hydroelectric dam and only get a trickle, it’s courtesy of Limnoperna fortunei, the golden mussel. Ten years ago this little bivalve hitch-hiked from Hong Kong to Argentina in the hold of a cargo ship – a popular hiding place for exotic aquatic stow-aways. Larvae of the mussel swam out into Argentine waters when the ship dumped its load of Asian ballast water, and now it’s in the Paraná River system in Brazil and - just like a virus – is threatening to spread.

The golden mussel causes plenty of problems, including suffocating native bivalve species and eating enough plankton to change entire ecosystems. In the long run, infestations can affect fish farms, municipal drinking water, irrigation and any industries that use freshwater for cooling.

Containment hasn’t even been attempted yet, and that’s a big environmental worry in a country with long stretches of navigable rivers and watersheds that are spitting distance apart.

Currently the hydroelectric industry is the most at risk in Brazil. The huge Itaipu dam on the Paraná River is already infested, as are three smaller dams along the river, and concerned dam technicians have also found the mussels in the Paranaiba River. Unfortunately, the chances of more breakouts are good.

As part of its goal to transfer Canadian expertise that can improve water management in Brazil, Projeto Peixes, Pessoas e Aguas has created opportunities for Brazilian and Canadian experts to put their heads together and concoct a plan to keep the golden mussel at bay.

The first step was for Marcia Divina Oliviera of EMBRAPA (a Brazilian federal research organization), to attend the 12th International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species in Windsor, Ontario. There, she learned of several methods for treating ballast water in order to stop any further migration of the mussel - none of which are efficient or economically viable enough to be installed on a large scale in Brazil.

While the golden mussel will most likely spread via local fishing traffic and tourist boats, Oliviera believes it may even invade the Amazon basin via ships’ ballast water. As for eradicating mussels that are already established in industrial facilities, Oliviera learned about control methods ranging from thermal treatment and chlorination to blasting with frozen carbon dioxide pellets.

Next, Projeto Peixes asked Renata Claudi, a Canadian consultant, to provide technical assistance in assessing and managing mussel fouling in Brazilian hydroelectric facilities. Her findings also indicate a growing problem. Presently, a chlorination system has been installed on one unit of the Itaipu dam as a research effort, but Claudi believes that chlorine injection systems, in conjunction with self-cleaning filters, need to be installed throughout the dam.

According to Claudi, the spread of the mussel will depend on preventing the interconnection of watersheds, regulating fish stocking and boat traffic, using anti-fouling on boat hulls and treating ballast water.

As for more immediate actions, World Fisheries Trust (WFT) believes that the best results may come from the efforts of Maria Edith Rolla of the Companhia Eletrica de Minas Gerais (CEMIG), one of the major hydroelectric players in Brazil and a partner in the CIDA project.

As a result of Projeto Peixes' investment, Rolla is now presenting courses to government agencies on slowing the spread of the golden mussel, as well as having Renata Claudi’s book on mussel control translated into Portuguese. She’s also pursuing plans to provide courses and publicity on the issue for the general public.

Building awareness is a big theme with Projeto Peixes, Pessoas e Agua, and in the case of the golden mussel, where technical controls are still hotly debated, it may be the most powerful tool we have.

Native Brazilian clam infested with golden mussels. Photo: Source: Dreher et al, Brazilian Zoological Review 20 (1), 2003.

Author's Note: There is an excellent animated map of the golden mussel invasion into Brazil at the website of the Invading Mollusks Research Group at Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo de la UNLP.

 

World Fisheries Trust was established in 1994 to promote sustainable use of global fisheries resources. Their tools are research, public awareness and training. In partnership with agencies, governments, communities and academia, WFT develops methods and policies to ensure continued livelihood from fisheries. Their goal is to foster responsible fisheries management at the local, regional and national level.

 

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June 22, 2004

By Brian Harvey, President of World Fisheries Trust

Special to AquaNews

 

That “dam” problem

For fish that need to go up and down rivers, dams create an obvious dilemma: they get in the way. Big fish heading upstream can’t reach their spawning grounds and, more often than not, their babies can’t get back down into the lower reaches of the river to feed and grow.

Using a combination of hatcheries and fish ladders, biologists and engineers in North America, Europe and Japan have minimized the effects of dams on fish migration. In Brazil, however, a country with plenty of dams, the effectiveness of hatcheries is unproven for most species of migratory fish, and the few fish ladders that have been tried over the years are small ones that haven’t been closely monitored.

Itaipu is different. Itaipu Binacional, which sits in the middle of the Parana River on the border of Brazil and Paraguay, is the world’s biggest dam - at least until China’s Three Gorges dam is finally filled. In 1996, the company added on the world’s longest fish passage, the Canal da Piracema (“fish migration canal”) – a unique combination of natural river, concrete canal and a long series of giant stepsending in the vast Itaipu reservoir above the dam.

But does it work? Officials at Itaipu knew that most of the local species could make it at least part of the way to the top. But what about the seven most important commercial species? These are some of the species that World Fisheries Trust’s Projeto Peixes, Pessoas e Aguas is dedicated to. In January of 2004, a Brazilian-Canadian team assembled at Itaipu during the spawning season to plant radio-tags in migrating fish, and to see how much of the canal the fish could actually navigate.

So far, so good

The team that assembled at the Itaipu Fish Culture Station in January 2004 collected six species of fish at the canal inlet and surgically implanted them with lumpy, $300 radio tags while the fish slept peacefully under the influence of sweet-smelling clove oil, an organic fish anesthetic. Once the fish woke up, they were released in the canal below a long series of concrete steps leading up to the reservoir. Receivers were set up above and below the release site, and the researchers began to download data on the fishes’ movements.

What happened? All the fish survived the operations, and many moved at least part way up the fish channel. Better still, the two most important long-distance migratory species - one of them the surubim catfish that can grow up to four feet long - actually made it all the way up the channel and into the reservoir above. That’s good news for the WFT project and for everyone concerned about the effects of dams on this important group of fish.

For the first time, researchers and dam officials had evidence that at least part of the passage really works; catfish can climb steps! And, as in most preliminary research, many tantalizing questions were raised. Why, for example, would two catfish stay in a pool for a week and then suddenly head upstream together, in the absence of all the environmental cues that were“supposed” to trigger their journey? Further studies aim to find the answer.

 

Next steps

The trials at Itaipu aren’t the first radiotagging of Brazilian migratory fish, but they accomplished exactly what Projeto Peixes, Pessoas e Aguas set out to do. First, Brazilian and Canadian researchers exchanged invaluable technical input and training. Lisiane Hahn, of the University of Maringa, led the trials and is now in Canada to analyse data and pick up more skills that she’ll use for her Ph.D. research. Secondly, the encouraging preliminary results have secured the enthusiasm and continued financial support of the Itaipu organization itself. Finally, ties between researchers, industry, and fishermen have been strengthened. This is a big plus in a country with many large dams, and a welcome change from finger-pointing.

 

To learn more, contact Lisiane Hahn or Yogi Carolsfeld, or visit the World Fisheries Trust website.

 

World Fisheries Trust was established in 1994 to promote sustainable use of global fisheries resources. Their tools are research, public awareness and training. In partnership with agencies, governments, communities and academia, WFT develops methods and policies to ensure continued livelihood from fisheries. Their goal is to foster responsible fisheries management at the local, regional and national level.

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Fisheries Policing More Than Just Saying No

Posted on January 16, 2004

 

Projeto Peixes, Pessoas e Águas, a joint Canadian-Brazilian project, jumped into the problem of Brazilian river fisheries enforcement just before Christmas. The Canadian Coordinator of World Fisheries Trust (WFT) invited a team of Brazilian fish cops, legislators, fishermen and policy makers to take a hands-on look at fisheries policing in BC.

Fisheries regulations are hard to enforce, anywhere. People fish in boats and on foot and they do it for reasons that range from catching a few fish for fun through feeding their family all the way to operating a big commercial vessel.

On Canada’s West coast, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans maintains a sizable enforcement division to keep an eye on a full plate of marine fisheries – salmon, groundfish, clams, the list is a long one. Even with modern equipment and training, though, the officer’s job is a tough one, depending as much on personal skills as on the state of the art global positioning device in the boat.

Brazilian fisheries enforcement officer on the Taquari River in the Pantanal. Photo: Brian Harvey.

What happens in Brazil, where fisheries large and small are strung out along a thousand miles of river? How do you enforce fisheries when the regulations themselves may be a work in progress, desperately in need of a sounder footing in research? How do you broker cooperation between landowners and industrialists and farmers, sport fishermen and subsistence fishermen and environmentalists – all of which play a big role in the life of a South American river?

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, one of WFT’s Canadian partners in the project, welcomed the visitors with presentations on logistics and gear in Victoria by Fisheries Officer Larry Paike, and WFT took them to see the First Nations Restorative Justice Program in action further north on Vancouver Island.

The highlight was a half-day excursion in two enforcement vessels, organized by Lower Fraser Chief of Enforcement Herb Redekopp. Herb loaded seven extremely cold Brazilians into two Zodiacs and took them on a graphic tour of the lower Fraser River that included fascinating descriptions of waste treatment, discussions of real-life fishing regulations and how they change with user input, (and an actual enforcement visit to a Musqueam Indian Band gillnetter where Sr. Raimundo, representing fishermen from the Sao Francisco River, hauled in his first-ever salmon.

Was the trip useful, or just a joyride? Sure, the Canadian boats are bigger and better-equipped than those in Brazil, but hardware wasn’t the real message. For the Brazilians, the big step forward was seeing how Canadian fishermen are involved in the making and enforcing of regulations, and how all the other parties with a stake in the resource have agreed to come to the table. For people like Sr. Raimundo and Captain Arley Ferreira, who heads up enforcement on the upper São Francisco, that’s a message worth pulling on any number of toques and borrowed down jackets.

 

 

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Canada and Brazil Join Forces on River Fisheries

Posted on November 24, 2003