Birds and Boats
I am a biologist that loves the birds and boats of northern Brazil. For good reason. On one hand the 250 miles of coast support enormous bird diversity inherent to most tropical environments. But the northern coast of Brazil in the states of Para and Maranhao stands out as one of the most important shorebird wintering areas in the western hemisphere as well. It’s an amazingly vast area of mostly unpopulated beaches, intertidal sand and mud flats and mangrove forests. This ecological wonder also produces an abundance of fish and shellfish, on which the birds depend. It also supports a network of traditional villages and they depend on boats.
Like most fishermen of Brazil, those of Maranhao and Para build sturdy boats with the flourish of the South American. They and their skilled shipwrights build the boats with fine tropical hardwoods that last forever in marine environments. The variety of shapes come from the waters they ply, everything from gale force ocean waves to placid tropical rivers, so they curve in nearly all directions. And the casual observer will find few of the bland white hulls of the mid-Atlantic Fisher. No these boat literally glow with color. No wonder they are well known throughout Brazil.
This gallery below is an homage to these beautiful and eminently useful boats.
Conservation of Resources for People and Birds
Fortunately for these fishers, this section of the northern coast of Brazil is partially protected by the federal government of Brazil through a novel conservation system known as Extrativista Reserves. These reserves protect natural resources, birds, fish, and shellfish for their own sake and for the traditional villages that depend upon them. I described this important and innovative conservation system in more detail here and here. This link takes you to ICMBio, the Brazilian federal agency that manages them.
The fishers of this tropical coast depend on the fishery and the Extractivist Reserves protect both from their main threat, the international fishing fleets. With their industrial level gear, they can ruin a local fishery in a few years. Their greedy exploitation can cause catastrophe among these rural and relatively powerless people within a few years. It has happened all around the world most famously in the failed state of Somalia.
Rarely has conservation been so important to both wildlife and the people living with them
Pictures in the gallery below were taken by Larry Niles, Joe Smith, Christophe Buiden, Yann Rochepault Stephanie Feigin and Mark Peck in 2014, 2016 and 2017 during expeditions studying shorebirds and their habitat.