Comércio on-line de peixes ornamentais no Brasil: aspectos etnozoológicos e implicações para a conservação

Abstract

Aquarism is a practice whose popularity has grown steadily in recent decades. This popularity has transformed the ornamental fish trade into a multi-million-dollar market involving several countries and hundreds of species. Brazil is considered a country of great importance in this context, both domestically and internationally. Recent studies have shown that the internet has dramatically enhanced the wildlife trade, legal or not. However, there is still a great lack of information on this type of trade, which makes it difficult to develop management strategies. Therefore, through this work we aim to analyze for the first time the online trade of ornamental fishes in Brazil, monitoring ads on a social network platform. Also, we analyze the profile of Brazilian aquarists through the application of online questionnaires. In six months, we registered 1.121 advertisements for the sale of ornamental fish, totaling 5.005 individuals belonging to at least 609 species, most of which are not native to Brazil. Online commerce is dominated by ads for freshwater fish (64%). Of the advertised total, 25% are trade-banned species, which are also the more expensive. Non-native species also showed higher values, and size was another factor that positively influenced the price. Considering the aquarists who answered the questionnaires (n = 906), the majority are men (88%), who are in or have completed higher education (53%) and with an income above two Brazilian minimum wages (78%). It was found that the amount of fish that each aquarist has increased according to income and experience and that the release of fish in the wild is not related to educational level, but to income. Also, a considerable portion of hobbyists (14%) have already released fish into the wild, contributing to the increased risk of introducing exotic species. Our results reveal the need for efforts to improve the regulation of the online trade of ornamental fishes in Brazil, mainly in strategies aimed at monitoring this activity. We believe that educating consumers about the negative impacts caused by trade and the irresponsible release of fish can contribute to changing attitudes that threaten the conservation of exploited species