Ethnoichthyology of artisanal fishers from nossa senhora island in the lower middle part of the Sao Francisco River

We present the first record of the perception and use of fishing resources by the artisanal fishermen of the Nossa Senhora Island in Juazeiro, Bahia, Brazil, analyzing the socioenvironmental aspects, especially the traditional ecological knowledge, ethnotaxonomy, diversity of species found, use and management of fish associated with artisanal fishing developed. In the data collection, the interview with a semi-structured questionnaire was used in the community of traditional fishers in Nossa Senhora Island, between February 2017 and February 2018. In this study, 79 citations in relation to 20 species of fish have been recorded. The data indicate that the fishers’ perception related to the abundance of species is broad and homogeneous, not focused on a single species of fish. The artisinal fishers in the Island reveal deep knowledge about biology, ecology and reproductive life of the especies caught, and the disappearance of species previously caught is attributed to external factors, including the construction of Sobradinho hydroelectric dam, which directly affects fish reproduction, climatic factos that impact the river, mainly scarce and badly-distributed rains and long period of drought, besides anthropogenic actions that directly affect the river and the fishing environment, significantly impacting the artisinal fishing along the riverside communities.