Socioeconomic aspects of sport fisheries in a neotropical reservoir

In economically emerging countries such as Brazil, sport fishing is emerging as an important social and economic contributor. However, despite its importance, some aspects still lack information, which jeopardizes the planning, mapping and proper management of the activity. Thus, the objective of this paper was to describe the socioeconomic profile of the sport fishermen of Itaipu Reservoir, Brazil, in order to provide subsidies for public and private investments in the promotion of regional fishing tourism. For this, semistructured socioeconomic questionnaires were given to sport fishermen (total respondents = 823 fishermen) participating in 19 sport fishing tournaments held at Itaipu Reservoir in 2015 and 2016. The majority of the fishermen that were interviewed were male (84%), married (65%), age 31-40 (31%) and had a high level of education (34%). The professional activities reported by the respondents were 43% entrepreneurs, 15% professionals, 15% public servants, 9% private sector workers and 7% students. The household income ranged from 3 to 6 times the Brazilian minimum wage (minimum wage R$ 954.00 = US$ 253.72, US$ 1 = R$ 3.76, October 2018) (34%). The expenditure on fishing events averaged US$ 140.33. The sport fishermen from Itaipu Reservoir demonstrated a high socioeconomic standard in relation to the fishermen from other regions of the country, which foments the local economy.


Introduction
Sport fishing has become important in several countries (e.g., Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States), generating billions of dollars in revenue . According to the American Sportfishing Association (ASA), in 2014 in the United States, sport fishing had approximately 33 million participants that spent US$ 48 billion annually on equipment, licenses and fishing travels. In addition, according to these same authors, in 2011 alone, approximately 828,000 jobs were directly and indirectly created through sport fishing activity, generating approximately US$ 115 billion to the United State economy. On the other hand, in emerging countries in Asia, Africa and South America, sport fishing activity still represents an incipient contribution to the national economy, and there is a lack of information on the effects that the activity has on local fishery resources . However, recent studies have shown that sport fishing, especially in Brazil, is growing, and that this activity has ceased to be just a leisure option and has become an important segment of the economy, moving millions of Reais per year due to the commercialization of products and services (Barroso & Freitas, 2014).
Driven by the creation of the Programa Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Pesca Amadora-PNDPA in 1997 by the federal government in order to strengthen the activity in the country, sport fishing tourism in Brazil began to expand in the early 1990s, becoming an instrument of economic development (Fabri, 2006;Schork et al., 2010). Sport fishing has been widely practiced in different aquatic environments in both marine and inland waters, such as beaches, shores, high seas, rivers and lakes. The main Brazilian tourist destinations for the practice of this fishing modality have been the Amazonian in the Amazonas State (Tsuruda et al., 2013) and the Pantanal in the Mato Grosso State (Catella, 2016;Barrella et al., 2016), two important Neotropical floodplains known for their high biodiversity of fishes species (Froehlich et al., 2017;Queiroz et al., 2013). In addition, in recent years, due to the formation of reservoirs of hydroelectric power plants near large urban centers, especially in the South, Southeast and Central-west regions of Brazil (Albano & Vasconcelos, 2013), and the introduction of attractive fish species to sport fishing (e.g., Cichla sp. and Salminus sp.) (Ribeiro et al., 2017), this activity has also expanded in these regions and localities.
Despite the importance of sport fishing socially and economically around the world, some negative aspects have been associated with its practice. Deleterious effects on local fish stocks have been observed, often with similar damage to commercial fishing (Cooke & Cowx, 2004, 2006Figueira & Coleman, 2010;Freire, 2010). Another negative effect highlighted by many authors is related to ethical issues associated with animal welfare (Chaves & Freire, 2012;Caminhas, 2015), mainly due to the practice of "catch-and-release", which presents the possibility of causing suffering to fish and can lead to the mortality of the individuals that are subjected to this modality (Cooke & Sneddon, 2007;Thomé-Souza, 2014;Barrocoet et al., 2018). In addition, sport fishing has been determined to be one of the main vectors for introducing non-native species into inland waters, which has been well documented in the literature (Ribeiro et al., 2017;Pelicice & Agostinho, 2009;Vitule et al., 2014;Pelicice et al., 2017;Gubiani et al., 2018), and the effects of non-native species on local biodiversity are also well known (Agostinho et al., 2005;Dudgeon et al., 2006;Ferrareze & Nogueira, 2015).
However, despite the extensive development of sport fisheries in the Brazilian scenario, there is a lack of information on the biological, social and economic aspects of the activity. As a consequence, for sustainable tourism, the environmental aspects, the economic characteristics of the communities and companies in the sector and the social aspects of tourism must be incorporated (Swarbrooke, 2002). Hence, the objective of this study was to describe the socioeconomic profile of sport fishermen from the Itaipu Reservoir, a large Neotropical reservoir, in the upper Paraná River, Brazil. Specifically, the profile included the origin of the fishermen, gender, marital status, age, schooling, occupation and family income. In addition, we described aspects of fishing, such as the expenses per event and the fishing equipment used. All this information is important for decision making on public and private investments in the promotion of regional fishing tourism as well as for the planning and management of sport fisheries.

Sampling
The study proposal was submitted to the Research Ethics Committee of the Western Paraná State University through "Plataforma Brasil (https://plataformabrasil.saude.gov.br/login.jsf) and approved by Decision n° CAAE 07316818.7.0000.0107. Interviews were carried after interviewees consented by signing two copies of the Informed Consent Form, one for the interviewee and one for the researcher.
Sport fishing in Itaipu Reservoir is organized in tournaments promoted by the amateur fishing associations in the seven municipalities bordering the reservoir (Mercedes, Marechal Cândido Rondon, Entre Rios do Oeste, Santa Helena, Missal, Santa Terezinha de Itaipu and Foz do Iguaçu). In 2015 and 2016, 19 tournaments were held (Table 1). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the application of questionnaires to the sport fishermen participating in the events. The interviewees were randomly selected among participants. To improve the representativeness of the sampling, we sought to interview approximately 10% of the total number of sport fishermen participating in the tournaments.
During the interviews, information was collected regarding socioeconomic aspects of the sport fishermen namely city of the origin, gender, marital status, age, schooling, occupation, family income, expenses amount by event and fishing equipment.

Data analysis
The data were tabulated in electronic spreadsheets and later analyzed using descriptive statistics based on the frequency of responses. To characterize the socioeconomic aspects of the sport fishermen, the results were expressed in graphs and tables.

Socioeconomic profile of the sport fishermen
During the study period, 823 fishermen were interviewed in fishing tournaments at Itaipu Reservoir (Table 1), representing 11% of the total fishermen participating in the events (total of participating fishermen = 7485 fishermen).
The majority of the participants in the tournaments were Brazilian (96.2%). However, fishermen from other countries were also registered (Paraguay 3.6% and Argentina 0.2%). Of the Brazilian fishermen, the highest participation came from the state of Paraná (94.7%, Figure 2). However, there were participants from seven other states ( Figure 2). In total, regarding the origin of the fishermen, 36 Paraná municipalities were cited (Figure 2). The highest representation was from the municipalities bordering the reservoir (79% of respondents), especially from the municipalities that hosted an event. The municipalities of Marechal Cândido Rondon (20%) and Foz do Iguaçu (13%) were the most cited cities of origin of the fishermen. Most of the fishermen were male (90%). Most of the interviewees were married (65%), 22% of the fishermen were single, 9% were in a stable union and 4% were divorced (Figure 3). The age of the fishermen ranged from 15 to 75 years. Most were concentrated in the age group of 31 to 40 years (31%, Figure 4).  Most of the participants had complete superior (34%) or 2nd incomplete degrees (21%) ( Figure 5). In addition, no illiterate fishermen were registered.

Discussion
The sport fishing at Itaipu Reservoir has regional importance. The origin of the participants was almost exclusively local, with fishermen being predominantly from the seven municipalities bordering the reservoir. In addition, our results showed that most of the participants lived in the city where the event was held. In this way, tourist attraction strategies may be developed to attract participants from other cities as well as from other states and countries to foment the local economy in different sectors, such as commercial, tourism, and food, among others.
Our results revealed that the sport fishermen of Itaipu Reservoir are younger than the standard Brazilian sport fishermen. According to Freire et al. (2012), in their review of Brazilian sport fisheries, the age group of national sport fishermen was between 40 and 55 years old. That younger participant's fish at Itaipu Reservoir is not a surprising result since the sport fishing there is supported almost exclusively by tucunaré (Cichla spp.) fishing (see Table 1 for the number of tucunaré fishing events). Fishing for this species is attractive to the sport fishing public given the high sportiness of the species and the many techniques used for its capture (Barroco & Freitas, 2014;Freitas & Rivas, 2006).
Sports fishing in Brazil can be characterized as an elite sport. Several studies have showed that Brazilian sport fishermen have a high level of education and a monthly family income much higher than the average Brazilian population. For example, Menezes et al. (2012), evaluating bass fishing (Centropomus undecimalis and C. parallelus) in Babitonga Bay, observed that most fishermen had a high level of schooling and family income. This pattern has been recurrent in other places, such as São Francisco do Sul, Santa Catarina (Schork et al., 2010) and at the Billings Dam, São Paulo (Alves da Silva et al., 2018).
Our results show the same pattern for Itaipu Reservoir. We observed that the average monthly household income (approximately US$ 1,257.45 = R$ 4,728.00; US$ 1 = R$ 3.76, October 2018) was greater than that of the population of Paraná State (approximately US$ 384.31 = R$ 1,445.00 in 2018, (IBGE, 2019), US$ 1 = R$ 3.76, October 2018). This result may be associated with the occupation of most of the sports fishermen from Itaipu Reservoir, of which the majority considered themselves entrepreneurs (see Figure 5). Similarly, Barrella et al. (2016), evaluating sport fishing in the "Deck do Pescador" in Santos, São Paulo, observed that when entrepreneurs were a minority, the average monthly income of the fishermen decreased (ca. US$ 801.54 = R$ 3,133.79; US$ 1 = R$ 3.76, October 2018).
In addition to the average monthly family income, the fishermen's expenses per event also corroborate the elitism of national sports fisheries. Our results showed that the expenses per event were on average US$ 149.69 (R$ 562.83; US$ 1 = R$ 3.76, October 2018). Despite this, the sport fisheries at Itaipu Reservoir were less expensive when compared to other places in Brazil. For example, the cost of a fishing trip to the Pantanal in the Mato Grosso State, where fishing tourism is considered one of the main economic activities of the municipalities of the region, such as the Cáceres municipality (Netto & Mateus, 2009), can fluctuate between US$ 470.00 to 970.00 per person with an average of US$ 163.00 per day of fishing (Moraes & Seidl, 2000). It is important to note that both sport fishing modalities (at Itaipu Reservoir and in the Pantanal) fit the patterns described by Albano and Vasconcelos (2013), which indicated that in Brazil, there are two distinct sport fishing modalities: one urban (e.g., sport fishing at Itaipu Reservoir) and another located at a distance from the major centers (the Pantanal and Amazonian regions). According to these same authors, this form of tourist fishing requires greater expenses and, consequently, attracts fishermen with higher purchasing power when compared to the sport fishing near large urban centers.
One of the problems reported in studies on sport fisheries is the identification of target species (Peixer & Petrere Júnior, 2009). Our results showed that for Itaipu Reservoir, the sport fisheries target two non-native species, the tucunaré and the corvina. Apparently, a recurrent pattern has been observed for urban sport fisheries, which are almost entirely based on non-native species (Ribeiro et al., 2017). In addition, in a review paper, Gubiani et al. (2018) reported that sport fishing is one of the main vectors for the introduction of species in the Neotropical region.

Conclusion
Based on the above, we can conclude that the socioeconomic profile of the sport fishermen of Itaipu Reservoir can be characterized as middle-aged, entrepreneurial people with high family income and educational levels, which makes this fishing modality elitist based on the national patterns of the socioeconomic profiles of the population. In addition, sport fishing at Itaipu Reservoir plays an important economic role locally, since most fishermen originate in the municipality that organizes the events or those municipalities that are very close. Thus, investments in outreach to promote greater media coverage of the events may attract fishermen from other cities, states and countries. Additionally, promoting tourism in sport fishing may be another alternative for the development of this activity regionally.