Edinburgh Napier University

  The project offers a unique opportunity to engage with, actively contribute to and learn from a UK-Brazilian applied research project investigating the reproductive rhythmicity of the mangrove crab Ucides cordatus, to underpin and improve the management of its fishery in Brazil. Due to the high ecological and socioeconomic significance of these crabs, the Brazilian government has implemented a suite of fishing rules. Regulators have however lost credibility among fishers, due to a mismatch between precautionary capture bans, implemented to protect the crabs during their conspicuous mass-mating events, and the actual occurrence of mating. Fishers adhering to the bans miss out on crucial income; consequently 'wrong' bans have sparked conflict and law incompliance.
REMAR has been asked to analyse the questionnaires, and to develop a user-friendly mass-mating predictor tool to inform fisheries management in future years.