Native to the Amazon, the pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) is one of the largest freshwater fish in the world and is also part of the region’s cuisine. However, the predatory fishing of the species, practiced for decades, put it in danger of extinction. To reverse this scenario, sustainable pirarucu management projects were implemented, involving traditional knowledge combined with scientific research carried out by various institutions, such as the Mamirauá Institute and the Federal University of Oeste do Pará.
One of the techniques developed by ribeirinhos to find out the population of arapaima in a given lake – and which has had its effectiveness proven by scientific methods – is counting with the naked eye. As this fish needs to go to the surface to ‘breathe’ every 15 minutes, a group of fishermen understood that this makes it possible to count to determine the number of fish of the species and, sometimes, their sizes, contributing to the sustainable management of arapaima.
In this game, you will practice the technique developed by the traditional knowledge of the riverside people and help the fishermen count how many arapaima there are in the lake.
How to play
Watch the video and try to count how many arapaima appear on the surface of the water to breathe. At the end, type in the text box below the amount of arapaima you counted. Do you think you can get the result right?
