Performance indicators for the large-scale Acoupa weakfish fishery of the Amazon continental shelf

The Acoupa weakfish, Cynoscion acoupa, is an important fishery resource of the Brazilian North coast that is commercially valuable, particularly for its gas bladder (fish maw), which is exported to Asian markets. However, because of intensive fishing and lack of reliable data, the Acoupa weakfish is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN. We used Fisheries Performance Indicators (FPIs) to evaluate C. acoupa fisheries on the Amazon continental shelf, to inform management actions. The ecological indicator had the lowest score due to increased fishing effort associated with high demand for the fish maw, and the co-management indicator was also unsatisfactory due to the predominance of fishing entrepreneurs and a lack of sustainable management practices. Our findings showed that the C. acoupa fishery is precarious in its sustainability, mainly because of harvest and co-management which were the least satisfactory metrics.