Vinicius J Giglio

Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará · Campus Oriximiná

Recreational scuba diving is rapidly increasing, and the negative impacts to marine reef biota are of conservation concern. Educational approaches have been tested to mitigate diver damage to benthic organisms, but logistical constraints impede their implementation in many locations. We investigated the behaviors of scuba divers in terms of their c...

1. Recreational diving is a concern regarding its effects on benthic assemblages, especially on heavily dived coral reefs. However, spearfisher behaviour and the scale of damage they cause to corals remains unknown. 2. The behaviour of recreational spearfishers was observed to verify their rate of physical contacts on corals in the Abrolhos Bank,...

Increasing exploitation effort and efficiency have been leading to population declines and extinctions among large marine animals. Understanding the magnitude of such losses is challenging because current baselines about species’ abundances and distributions in the sea were mostly established after humans had started affecting marine populations. F...

The physical damages to benthic organisms caused by boat anchorages were assessed in the Arraial do Cabo Marine Extractive Reserve (ACMER), Brazil. It is one of the most visited scuba diving sites along the southwestern Atlantic. Through underwater visual observations, we analyzed if benthic organisms were damaged by anchors and/or anchor cabling a...

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been one of the main strategies for the conservation of marine ecosystems and an attempt to buffer or revert anthropogenic and natural disturbances. However, only the implementation of an MPA does not guarantee effectiveness in the maintenance of these environments. The involvement of the stakeholders in the whole...

Faced with the need for isolation of most people to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, a great concern for the well-being of the population has resurfaced. Considering the numerous benefits of outdoor activities to human health and well-being, we assessed whether the quality of the experience of recreational divers in a marine protected area (MPA...

Subtropical reefs have suffered from increasing threats and impacts mainly from anthropogenic activities. These reefs also have socioeconomic relevance being in many locations an important income source through recreational activities. This study aimed to assess the potentially damaging behaviors of scuba divers on benthic reefs organisms in the fi...

The dog snapper, Lutjanus jocu, is a commercially exploited fish throughout the Brazilian Province (BP) and has been facing overexploitation. However, there are no systematized data on the species to date, which hinders management strategies for mitigating this scenario. In this review, we gathered the existing literature information on L. jocu alo...

Scuba diving is a form of ecotourism that has demonstrably negative impacts on benthic sessile organisms through diver-induced mechanical damage, but we know relatively less about the direct and indirect impacts of divers on fishes and the communities they live in. Damselfishes (Pomacentridae) are an ideal model to study to understand the effects o...

Spearfishing is practiced by a small fraction of younger recreational fishers and has received considerably less scientific attention than angling. This knowledge gap may negatively affect the ability for developing sustainable marine recreational fisheries. We address this through a global systematic review of the literature pertaining to marine s...

Subtropical Brazilian reefs are commonly composed by rocky frameworks with low coral abundance. Contrarily to most tropical reefs, our knowledge on coral assemblages in subtropical reefs is still developing. Queimada Grande is a subtropical island in the Brazilian coast lying 35 km offshore from the state of São Paulo (24ºS). Despite the partial pr...

Spearfishing is a popular activity practiced for recreation and subsistence along the tropical and subtropical coast of Brazil. Although being an economically important activity, the influence of species traits driving target preferences among recreational spearfishers have been poorly explored. Spearfishing is highly selective towards large trophy...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) represent a useful tool for resource management, as well as to conserve and/or restore biological communities. The level of protection is key factor influencing the marine biodiversity, where a more enforced protection is expected to drive positive outcomes. In 2008, a large MPAs network ( 11,380 km 2) was established...

An understanding of the effects of fishing on marine ecosystems relies on information about the conserved state of these environments. Non-conventional approaches such as the use of historical data and local ecological knowledge can provide information and help adjust our references of changes in the environment. Also, the combination of different...

Overfishing is notorious for triggering population collapses and disrupting marine biological functioning worldwide. To counter such a threat, policy-makers have created and implemented multiple management strategies, but most were incapable to prevent the decline of several key species. Here, we discuss a new management strategy in force since Jun...

Assessing species conservation status and population trends is challenging especially on low and low-middle income countries mostly due to high costs. Therefore, long-term information about species gained through local ecological knowledge, can reveal threatening and overexploitation scenarios aiming to generate information for extinction risk redu...

On tropical reefs, cleaning interactions, in which a fish or shrimp cleaner removes ectoparasites from a client fish, are common. Such cleaning interactions have been shown to reduce physiological stress in the clients. We asked whether the process of cleaning by a cleaner wrasse Thalassoma noronhanun modified a fish client's risk assessment, hypot...

Sustainability of scuba diving tourism should be assessed not only in environmental terms, but also concerning the quality of the diving experiences. Through the application of semi-structured questionnaires, we assessed differences in the scuba diving experiences from three subtropical Brazilian marine protected areas (MPAs) with different context...

The assessment of species conservation status traditionally relies on population data. In the absence of such data, biological attributes have been applied to predict the degree of species’ vulnerability. Our study investigated the accuracy of biological attributes to predict species’ vulnerability to extinction by contrasting matches and mismatche...

Recreational diving is an expanding branch of ecotourism that when poorly managed, may cause considerable impacts to benthic organisms. Such impacts become a matter of concern in popular diving destinations. A systematic literature review was used to verify the characteristics of divers who cause damage to reefs, the effects on benthic organisms, a...

Ecologically important marine ecosystems should be identified and protected, as is the case of the poorly known SW Atlantic rhodolith beds. Understanding the main variables predicting biodiversity patterns is essential for determining priority areas for conservation. Here, we analyzed the macroinvertebrate associated with rhodoliths from euphotic a...

Recreational fishing is an important economic and social activity in many countries. However low- and middle-income nations often lack basic data, like catch recording, on this fishery. To gather data to better understand recreational spearfishing catch in Abrolhos Bank, we assessed images posted on Facebook between June 2014 and January 2015. We d...

1. Increasing evidence has revealed that different fisheries have collapsed around the world. This is generally more evident in countries that can maintain long-term research and fisheries monitoring. When monitoring data are not available, alternative approaches to assess fisheries trends can be used, such as the local ecological knowledge of fish...

We investigated the feeding rates, agonistic behaviour and diet of two blenny species, Entomacrodus vomerinus and Ophioblennius trinitatis, by direct observation and gut content analysis. Both species coexist in small and shallow tide pools in the St Peter and St Paul's Archipelago, equatorial North Atlantic Ocean. The feeding rate of O. trinitatis...

The reduction or loss of antipredator behavior is expected for animals isolated on islands, but most of studies have focused on terrestrial rather than aquatic species. Two different processes may modulate fish antipredator behavior in the waters off remote archipelagos. First, places with low human density may have reduced fishing pressure. Second...

The assessment of management effectiveness is essential to measure how well marine protected areas (MPAs) are achieving their goals and objectives. Incorporating the view of multiple stakeholders is an important component of MPA planning and management as it may simultaneously help reduce conflicts and increase adherence to rules and compliance. Ho...

Scuba diving tourism represents a growing non-extractive use of the marine environment, being an important income source for coastal communities. However, the activity can cause impacts on benthic sessile organisms by abrading tissues or breaking physical structures. The effects of scuba diving on fishes are less studied and there is no consensus a...

The Long-Term Monitoring Program of Brazilian OceanicIslands (PELD-ILOC), whose main goal is monitoring various components of the reef environments in the Brazilian oceanic island, started its activities in 2013. During the last five years, researchers have been gathering data on reef fish assemblages, benthic communities, coral health and its as...

Despite marine fish being an important food resource for coastal communities, the amount of fish caught by small-scale fisheries is unsustainable at many locations. Fish consumers have a critical role in species conservation because they can choose responsibly and avoid consuming overexploited or endangered species. In this study, local human consu...

In a nuclear-follower fish foraging association, the follower benefits from food uncovered or flushed out when the nuclear fish disturbs the bottom, while nuclear species generally do not seem to be benefiting. Among nuclear species, eels (anguilliform fish) are known to be one of the most represented groups. Here we investigated the frequency and...

The Atlantic goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) is a critically endangered reef fish that has suffered from overfishing. In Brazil, the species has been under a fishing ban since 2002; however, there are no evidences of population recovery. In this context, data to help improve management programs are sorely needed. We assessed fisheries landing...

The Atlantic goliath grouper, Epinephelus itajara, is a large-sized coastal fish that has been heavily overfished, mainly through spearfishing. In order to assess historical catches of the species, we interviewed spearfishers along three generations (young, middle-aged and old) in the traditional fishing village of Arraial do Cabo, southeastern Bra...

Many reef fish are known to be associated with particular microhabitats that provide food and refuge, such as branching corals, gorgonians, macroalgal beds and sea urchins. We investigate the association of reef fishes with the long-spined sea urchin Diadema antillarum in shallow reefs of Trindade Island, southeastern Brazil. A total of 1283 fish i...

In the last two decades, coral reefs have become popular among recreational divers, especially inside marine protected areas. However, the impact caused by divers on benthic organisms may be contributing to the degradation of coral reefs. We analyzed the behavior of 142 scuba divers in the Abrolhos National Marine Park, Brazil. We tested the effect...

An extinct sawfish fishery in mangroves of the Abrolhos Bank (eastern Brazil) was investigated through local ecological knowledge of four elderly and expert fishers. Sawfish was usually caught with gillnets and longlines, as a secondary target of snooks, Atlantic goliath grouper and acoupa weakfish fisheries. Insights on the locally collapsed sawfi...

Coastal hammerheads have suffered from overexploitation and environmental degradation. We interviewed 79 artisanal fishers to verify fishery aspects, temporal changes in catches and biological aspects of the smalleye hammerhead, Sphyrna tudes , in a marine protected area on Abrolhos Bank, Brazil. Data were compared between three generations of fish...

Pôster de divulgação sobre boas práticas no mergulho. Traduzido para o Português da iniciativa Green Fins - www.greenfins.net

Background. The goliath grouper, Epinephelus itajara (Lichtenstein, 1822), is the largest Atlantic grouper. It has been the first marine fish subjected to a fishing moratorium in Brazil (since 2002). The aim of this study was to investigate basic biological aspects, particularly the diet and reproduction of this endangered species. We believe that...

The goliath grouper Epinephelus itajara, a threatened fish has been protected from fishingin Brazil since 2002. However, poaching records have raised questions about the extent ofcompliance to the fishing moratorium. We compiled data of commercial landings figuringin official reports as well as episodes of apprehensions of illegal catches by enviro...

Developing survey strategies for threatened species is often limited by access to sufficient individuals to acquire information needed to design appropriate conservation measures. The goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) is a large reef fish, globally classified as critically endangered. In Brazil, fishing has been prohibited since 2002. Herein we...

Herein, we describe the use of scars to photo-identify the goliath grouper,Epinephelus itajara. Three individuals were photoidentified and re-sighted several times at the same site along the Brazilian coast, including the longest report for site fidelity, with more than four years.