Economy of the island of eco-tourism: the role of shark-diving and shark harvesting

Beyond its importance in maintaining ecosystems, sharks provide services that play important socioeconomic roles. The rise in their exploitation as a tourism resource in recent years has highlighted economic potential of non-destructive uses of sharks and the extent of economic losses associated to declines in their population. In this work, we present estimates for use value of sharks in Fernando de Noronha Island - the only ecotouristic site offering shark diving experience in the Atlantic coast of South America. Through the Travel Cost Method we estimate the total touristic use value aggregated to Noronha Island by the travel cost was up to USD 312 million annually, of which USD 91.1 million are transferred to the local economy. Interviewing people from five different economic sectors, we show shark-diving contribute with USD 2.5 million per year to Noronha’s economy, representing 19% of the island’s GDP. Shark-diving provides USD 128.5 thousand of income to employed islanders, USD 72.6 thousand to government in taxes and USD 5.3 thousand to fishers due to the increase in fish consumption demanded by shark divers. We discover, though, that fishers who actually are still involved in shark fishing earn more by catching sharks than selling other fish for consumption by shark divers. We conclude, however, that the non-consumptive use of sharks is most likely to benefit large number of people by generating and money flow if compared to the shark fishing, providing economic arguments to promote the conservation of these species.

Potencialidades de cultivo de macroalgas no litoral do Rio Grande do Norte (NE, Brasil): uma perspectiva de integração de dados ambientais em sistemas de informação geográfica (SIG)

Since centuries ago, the Asians use seaweed as an important source of feeding and are their greatest world-wide consumers. The migration of these peoples for other countries, made the demand for seaweed to increase. This increasing demand prompted an industry with annual values of around US$ 6 billion. The algal biomass used for the industry is collected in natural reservoirs or cultivated. The market necessity for products of the seaweed base promotes an unsustainable exploration of the natural banks, compromising its associated biological balance. In this context, seaweed culture appears as a viable alternative to prevent the depletion of these natural supplies. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide space and produce information that can facilitate the evaluation of important physical and socio-economic characteristics for the planning of seaweed culture. This objective of this study is to identify potential coastal areas for seaweed culture in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, from the integration of social-environmental data in the SIG. In order to achieve this objective, a geo-referred database composed of geographical maps, nautical maps and orbital digital images was assembled; and a bank of attributes including physical and oceanographical variables (winds, chains, bathymetry, operational distance from the culture) and social and environmental factors (main income, experience with seaweed harvesting, demographic density, proximity of the sheltered coast and distance of the banks) was produced. In the modeling of the data, the integration of the space database with the bank of attributes for the attainment of the map of potentiality of seaweed culture was carried out. Of a total of 2,011 ha analyzed by the GIS for the culture of seaweed, around 34% or 682 ha were indicated as high potential, 55% or 1,101 ha as medium potential, and 11% or 228 ha as low potential. The good indices of potentiality obtained in the localities studied demonstrate that there are adequate conditions for the installation of seaweed culture in the state of Rio Grande do Norte