Capture and commercialization of blue land crabs ("guaiamum") Cardisoma guanhumi (Lattreille, 1825) along the coast of Bahia State, Brazil: an ethnoecological approach

Field work was carried out in the municipality of Mucuri, Bahia in Brazil, between the months of January and March/2011 through the use of open semi-structured interviews with all of the crustacean harvesters in city who acknowledged their work in capturing this species, totaling 12 interviewees. The informants were identified through the use of the "snowball" sampling technique. In addition to the interviews themselves, the "guided tour" technique and direct observations was employed.According all the interviewees, the C. guanhumi is popularly called "guaiamum" and is collected in "apicum" zones. They recognize sexual dimorphism in the species based on three morphological characteristics and the harvesters also pointed two stages in the reproductive cycle during the year and another phase mentioned by the interviewees was ecdysis. All of the interviewed affirmed that the size and the quantities C. guanhumi stocks in Mucuri have been diminishing. All of the interviewees agreed that the species and other mangrove resources constituted their principal source of income. The harvesters dedicated three to five days a week to collect Blue Land Crabs and the principal technique utilized for capturing is a trap called a "ratoeira" (rat-trap).The results of the present work demonstrated that the community retains a vast and important volume of knowledge about C. guanhumi that could subsidize both scientific studies and the elaboration of viable management and conservation strategies for this species.Mangrove ecosystems are restricted to intertidal coastal zones in tropical and subtropical regions. These transitional environments are characterized by high levels of primary productivity and high capacities for transforming nutrients into organic material [1]. Mangrove swamps are encountered along almost the entire Brazilian coast from the Oiapoque River in the state of Amapá in the north to Laguna, in the state of Santa Catarina [2] and they occupy a total area of approximatel