After facing a fish die-off and the longest drought in more than 120 years, a riverside community on the Solimões River in Amazonas can start fishing again. The fishermen are preparing gillnets and nets to return to their activities and make a living for their families. Mapará fishing, which had been banned since 15 November 2023, is taking place in an organised way in the region of the municipality of Careiro da Várzea, in the interior of the state. The closed season restricts fishing activities in order to preserve the species at the time of reproduction. It lasted exactly four months, and included species other than the mapará. After the extreme drought of the rivers in 2023, the waters are still not well recovered. Despite the level being much lower than expected, more than a thousand fishermen are scattered around the lake. People who waited for the right time to fish, believing in the abundance of the region's rivers. In 2024, around 280 tonnes of mapará left Lago do Rei, in Careiro da Várzea, Amazonas. A bearded, smooth fish, most of them are frozen outside of Brazil, but are traded at the time of fishing. The sale of the species boosts the municipality's economy. During the same period last year, the town's mayor's office collected an average of R$1 million in just over four days.

Source: Amazon Agency