The 15-foot-long arapaima was quickly disappearing in Brazil until local communities stepped in to save it—and themselves.
A close-up view of an arapaima from the Brazilian Amazon shows its unique scales, which are one of the toughest materials in nature., a fish capable of growing up to 10 feet long and weighing up to 500 pounds. Just over a decade ago, this popular seafood species faced extinction, its numbers ravaged by. But conservation efforts spearheaded by local communities have turned things around for the arapaima, with populations increasing dramatically across the Amazon.
“For many, many decades, people have been looking to the outside for solutions to the problems in the Amazon, but the arapaima story shows that the answers are often in the hands of the local people and communities living in the forest,” says Campos-Silva.’s borders, is home to tens of millions of people, including around 400 Indigenous groups. The basin is crisscrossed by thousands of rivers with more fish species than in any other river system on Earth.
Most arapaimas spawn just after seasonal floodwaters rise and spread into the forest. When waters recede during the dry season, the fish are confined to isolated lakes and river channels. It's during this time that fishing operations are allowed.An aerial view shows floodplain vegetation in Amazonas. During the dry season, arapaimas are confined to isolated lakes and river channels where they breed and lay eggs dug in the muddy bottoms.
He and other scientists continue to gain deeper insights into the movement, ecology, and population dynamics of the arapaima, including through tagging and radio-tracking fish. For instance, they’ve found that for a population of arapaima to be deemed healthy, there should be a minimum of 30 individual fish per square kilometer of floodplain.Yet there are still many unmanaged areas of the Amazon where arapaimas may be going locally extinct.
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