Me & IBAMA Out in the Field

My day with IBAMA (and it was a good day!)

While doing fieldwork in Fortim, I received a phone call from my contact at the IBAMA (Brazil Environment Department) office in Fortaleza. She said she was coming to Fortim and wanted to organize spending a day in the field with me. I was slightly nervous, what if I don’t find any seahorses while she’s with me? Will she think I’m not qualified? What if she doesn’t like my research metods….will she delay my permit even more? Will she think I need to add more safety precautions into my work? I mean some days I just swim to the other side of the river, about a 10 minute swim. Since she is coming do I need to try to organize a boat? Will she get in the water? Ay, ay ay!

When we met up in Fortim, I was surprised to see that it was not only her, but also another guy I had met named Livio, and an intern. Wow! Three quote unquote official IBAMA people, meeting with me. This is crazy. They told me that there was a guy requesting a permit to fish for seahorses who lived in Fortim and so we all got into the IBAMA-mobile to go hunt him down. After driving around this small town, and for me experiencing the hilarity of how everyone hides from the IBAMA-mobile for fear that they will be questioned, we finally found our man. (Although one person when we were trying to ask for directions literally ran inside the house and shut the door, refusing to talk to us….hmmm I wonder what activities he was up to…)

Anyway Mr. Seahorse Fishermen, arranged a boat for us to go out on for the day, and I began a fun-filled day of fieldwork with the IBAMA crew. Livio got in the water and helped me to transects, while the intern and my official contact, remained on the boat. It was also a little funny, because the Official, brought a life jacket, and she wore it. On this tiny little boat, at low tide, in a river that got maybe 4 feet deep at low tide. I tried to stifle my chuckles as best I could. The first day, sadly, we found no seahorses.

The second day, we went out my motorized boat, to a location farther away and low and behold, I spotted a juvenile! Hidden in the mud and oysters. Whew! What a sigh of relief. I was able to show the crew from IBAMA how I do research in the field and everyone was on board! They started calling me the seahorse champion for finding the juvenile seahorse on the second day. A great experience for all and my first successful collaboration with IBAMA! Hopefully more to come!

Fish Market Prainha

I have been to several fish markets to watch the process of fishermen unloading catch and wholesalers, retailers, and consumers haggling over fish and prices. In Hawaii, I was blown away by the large amounts of tuna and billfish (relatively large fish) that were brought in by the fishermen. To see some pictures and read the Duke blog about this class in Hawaii click here. In Fortaleza, I was amazed by all the shrimp and snapper (see earlier blog in January on fish market)

The fishmarket in Praina, my home town here in Brazil, is an entirely different manner. The fish market is based around the tide table. At high tide, the boats return from being out at sea, sometimes for up to three days! Can you imagine on this tiny little boat? Other fishermen help to drag the boat up onto the beach while the waves crash in the background.

After the boat is safely up on the beach, the crowds, although when I say crowd I don't mean the 50 to 100's of people you'd see at the Hawaiian fish market, I'm talking about 10-15 maybe 20 people on a crazy day, that gather around to see the catch. In the crowd, you have a combination of people, children, teens, father's, mother's and even grandmother's there to inspect the day's catch. About half the crowd is from the local restaurants there to inspect the best of the best, to buy fish for the beach going crowds. Another large part are the locals trying to buy good fish for dinner that night. And a small majority, myself included, are merely onlookers.

The biggest shock, or biggest difference, at this fish market, at least for me, is the size of the fish. These fish are TINY! Small! Nowhere near the size of any fish I saw in the Hawaii fish market, the Boston fish market, the DC fishmarket or any other's I've been to. Another shocker was to see that this one fishermen had a catch of eels! I have never heard of people eating moray eel! Crazy, but I guess they do here in small coastal towns. I asked several people standing around me how they cook it, and couldn't get a consensus. Although it does make me wonder what fish I am eating , when I eat fish stews here!

I watched the fishermen filet and gut the fish. An interesting practice was that several little boys lined up to put fishing line through about 10 fish each, then tied up the fishing line and started walking around trying to sell the fish to people on the beach. One fishermen had caught a huge ray. Stingray stew, muqueca de arraia (moo-kay-ka de hiya), is a popular beachside dish all up and down the coast of Ceara. I watched him gut the stingray and then carry it off to one of the beach side restaurants. Talk about fresh fish! Yumm!

It was an interesting experience watching this small beachside town in Brazil carry out it's fish market in comparison to the larger, bigger, fish markets even in Fortaleza or the US. A memorable experience and for me, a charming characteristic of life in a beachside town in northeast Brazil.

World Cup

What was it like to be in Brazil for the World Cup? Unbelievable. Or as they say in Portuguese, OTIMO (the ultimate?)! I had never been a big professional soccer fan, had always thought the games were boring to watch on tv and knew next to nothing about it, except how to play soccer from back in the day. Well being in Brazil for the World Cup, was quite the educational experience for me and I really got into it. In the days leading up to Brazil’s first match, houses were painted the colors of the Brazilian flag, side walks were painted, alleys, streets and telephone poles were decorated with green and yellow tassels. Sales of Brazilian attire, t-shirts, shorts, and sarongs went through the roof at the little neighborhood store that is next to my apartment.

The first Brazil game, I watched with my friend, the pousada owner, her whole family, father, mother, sisters, brothers, their families, pousada guests, and Brazilian friends. Total number of non-Brazilians in the room, me included: 2. They basically threw a huge superbowl-esque type party for the first game. They brought out the churrasqueria (grill) to make meat in the living room, and Brazil’s favorite beer was served, SKOL. My contribution, some guacamole, which wound up being a big hit, but also was quite strange for Brazilians because they eat avacado as a sweet dessert, as a mousse. They mush it up so it looks like guacamole but instead of tomatoes, garlic and spices they add sugar and milk to make it into a mousse. Ok so back to game day, everything closes in Brazil for the games. I was so surprised when I ran to the store to pick up some guacamole, to see a big sign at the entrance saying, sorry the grocery store will be closed for these two hours to support Brazil in it’s world cup game. WHAT?!! Whoever heard of a grocery store closing for a big sports event? And it was not only grocery stores that closed, convenient stores, banks, some restaurants, gas stations, I wouldn’t be surprised if even the airport closed to watch the Brazil game. (I’m sure it didn’t, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least)

The second and third Brazil games I watched on Fernando de Noronha, where the dive shop had big Brazil parties for the games. This added a small town feel to some of the Brazil games because of the multiple nationalities present at the parties. One dive instructor was from Argentina, and there were good-natured jokes about the rivalry between these two teams and which team was better. I’m not a big soccer fan, but I also found myself rooting for Brazil and for the US team in its games. Soon enough I too began wearing Brazil colors on game days. For the US games, it was funny to be be the only person jumping and yelling when the US scored a goal. I got lots of smiles and also strange looks from the Brazilians while watcing with friends at the local bar.

One of the biggest players on the Brazil team is named Kaka; he is number 10. All throughout the world cup, there were tv commercials with him advertising this cologne or that telephone company. I would say the adoration of the soccer players is much like the adoration of any professional athlete in the US.

It was so cool to see all Brazilians into the world cup. People dressed in green and yellow on Brazil game days. There was such nationalism during the world cup. I can’t think of any sporting event in the US that unites the entire country like the world cup unites Brazil. Probably the coolest thing about the world cup was when Brazil scored a goal you could hear GGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL and screams and shouts and firecrackers and blow horns and car horns and a ruckus of celebratory noise all through the streets. However it was also tragically sad, when Brazil lost to Holland, the streets were silent. No noise, no car horns, no firecrackers. There was no one in the streets and the streets seemed to take on a desolate feel to them. The Brazilians I was with, were crying, it was sad.

The next World Cup in 2014 is in Brazil and as soon as Brazil lost this was all anyone could talk about. Fortaleza is one of the 9 or 10 capital cities were World Cup games will be played. There’s already talk and speculation about the next Brazil world cup team, who will stay and who will get cut and what next players will be added. All in all the world cup was quite the experience here. I got into professional soccer for the first time, and I too had Brazilian National Pride during the world cup. I can’t imagine what it will be like here in 2014. Perhaps I’ll have to apply for another grant to study the impacts of world cup tourism on seahorses in Brazil to find out!