Brazil Seizes Illegal Lobster Being Shipped to US

Brazil’s Ibama (Brazilian Environmental Protection Institute – Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis) together with the Federal Police and agents from the Ministry of Agriculture apprehended a total of 16 tons of lobster because they were smaller than permitted.

Ibama norms require lobster to be at least 13 centimeters in length for commercialization. The apprehension took place in Porto do Pecém, in the metropolitan region of Fortaleza, capital of the northeastern state of Ceará.


The lobster was being prepared for export to the United States by the company Acaraú Pesca Distribuidora de Pescado e Importação.


Under Brazilian law, the company can be fined up to US$ 17,500 (41,400 reais) and the people responsible sentenced to one to three years in jail. Selling undersize lobster is serious offense in the country’s Environmental Crime Law.


Predatory Equipment


To put an end to predatory lobstering in Northeast Brazil, the government prohibited the use of gill nets (“caçoeiras”). This type of net catches lobsters of all sizes, as well as causing damage to the ocean floor.


Since May 1, the only legal form of catching lobsters is using “manzuás” (wooden traps which lobsters enter but are unable to escape). 


Lobstering employs around 100 thousand people throughout the Brazilian Northeast. The crustacean is one of Brazil’s major fishing exports. Last year alone lobsters brought in revenues of US$ 20 million, 28% more than in 2003.


The breeding season for lobsters – when lobstering is prohibited throughout the country – runs from January 1 to April 30. During these months, registered fishermen receive unemployment insurance.


ABr – www.radiobras.gov.br

Tags:

You May Also Like

Brazilian Cosmetics Maker Wants a Piece of the World

Rosatex, a manufacturer of cleaning products and cosmetics from Brazil created, last year, an ...

Brazil Gets Better Grade in Fighting Corruption But Still Fails

The latest report card for global corruption given annually by the London-based Transparency International ...

Tax Cuts and Spending Caps to Make Brazil Grow 5% a Year

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ordered his top advisers yesterday to craft ...

Brazil: FAO Wants Closer Ties Between Davos and WSF

The representative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Brazil, José ...

Ahmadinejad Says He Won’t Renounce Right to Nuclear Technology. Lula Backs Him

The Iranian program of nuclear energy was supported today, November 23, by the president ...

‘Poverty Still Has Collor,’ Brazilian Official Recognizes

Brazil’s 5th Intergovernmental Forum on the Promotion of Racial Equality just took place in ...

Australian Firm Sure It Will Strike Gold in Brazil

Tiger Resources Limited, an Australian exploration company based in Perth, continues to invest in ...

Brazil’s Best-Selling Paulo Coelho Posts Novels on Web for Free

Publishing House HarperCollins has declared 2008 the year of Brazilian best-selling novelist Paulo Coelho. ...

In Brazil the Economic Climate Index Is Hot (7.8), LatAm’s Hottest

Economic Climate Index (ECI) of Latin America, developed between the German Ifo Institute from ...

Brazil Earmarks US$ 4 Bi to Deal with 7.2 Bi Houses Deficit

This year, Brazil’s federal government will invest US$ 4 billion (11 billion reais) in housing ...