Pesca de pequena escala e a gestão patrimonial: o caso da pesca da tainha no litoral paranaense

The beach seine, with mullet as its main target, is one of the oldest fishery practices in Paraná, Brazil. This article focuses on the common property management of this fishery, with emphasis on the causes of its decline, as perceived by the fishermen themselves. The approach was ethnoecological, employing direct observation, experienced learning and semi-structured interviews with 13 local experts. They did not consider that the practice leads to over-exploitation of the resource, but showed a sense of conservationbased on economic considerations. A conservationist mentality emerged more recently as a result of the empirical realization of reduced fish abundance. The introduction of new, more productive and profitablefishing techniques contributed to changes in the regimes of access to resources (mainly characterized by disregard for the informal rules of usage). A breakdown of values fostered competition, leading to an increase in fishing effort, adoption of individual practices, use of gears considered predatory, and fishing in prohibited areas and periods. That, in turn, resulted in the decline of the activity. The particular characteristics of the beach seine, namely, a group practice that fosters the development of social ties and important values to the sense of community, such as collectivity, collaboration, respect for social norms, sharing and re-union, must be incorporated into the agenda of management agencies. Doing so requires the participation of users in the management process, which would also allow due consideration of the history of this practice and the projection of scenarios that older fishermen can do, based on theirexperiences and the deep social-environmental changes to which they were submitted. The knowledge of beliefs, feelings and behaviors of different generations of fishermen regarding nature is a necessarycondition for the management and sustainability of the activity.