Incentives for commercial fishing of Arapaima gigas (arapaima) on the Araguaia River (central Brazil) in the magazine A Informação Goyana (1917-1935)

Abstract

Between 1917 and 1935, the magazine A Informação Goyana sporadically published several photos of specimens of Arapaima gigas (arapaima) captured in the Araguaia River. This present article follows the interconnections formed by the photographic record of this species and its appearance in this magazine, in an attempt to analyze efforts to integrate the state of Goiás into Brazil through developing a fishing industry, which did not yet existent in that state. This effort coincided with the emergence of a national debate on incentives for fishing and the formation of a domestic market arapaima as a way to reduce cod imports. These images emphasized the biodiversity of the aquatic animals inhabiting the rivers in Goiás, the size and weight of arapaima from the Araguaia Basin, and the potential of large-scale fishing of this species for the economic development of the state.