How to catch burrow crabs: ecology of practices in mangrove landscapes

Abstract

This article discusses the relationship between technique and ecology of practices, based on the small-scale fishing activity of the mangrove crab (Ucides cordatus), which dwells in the mud of mangroves in the Brazilian Northeast. The research was conducted in the mangroves of Delta do Parnaíba Extractive Reserve, Acaú-Goiana Extractive Reserve, Canavieiras Extractive Reserve and the Recôncavo Baiano area. We accompanied crab catchers in their engagements in the mangroves and also followed public debates on the regulation of the activity. We present an ethnography of the capture techniques used and their transformations in recent years, linked to the phenomenon of crab sinking. We then discuss the logic of regulating the activity, which focuses on the relationship between the extraction rate and the reproduction rate, from a population perspective that does not take into account other relationships that constitute the landscapes and are important for the abundance of crabs. We then discuss the logic of legal regulating the activity, which focuses on the relationship between the extraction rate and the reproduction rate, from a population perspective that does not take into account other relationships that constitute the landscapes and are important for the abundance of crabs. Thus, little consideration is given to the co-occurrence of specific histories of social-ecological relationships in different mangroves, especially those of exploitation, destruction and contamination of the landscapes, typical of the Anthropocene. The argument we present draws attention to the situationality of the use of technical resources and tools and their political consequences in an ecology of practices in which, with local specificities, scalable state world making and small-scale fishing world making get into friction.