Ornamental fish dumping in Brazilian continental waters recorded on YoutubeTM: absence of information or intentional environmental crime?

Abstract

Fishkeeping is a hobby practiced worldwide, with increase of popularity in Brazil in the last decades. The dumping of ornamental fish in natural environments is a mistake, being a form of introduction of species and environmental crimes. In this way, the aim of this work was to verify the records of dumping available on the web, on the social network of YouTube™ in Brazil. The search for videos was carried between July and December of 2018, totaling 616 hours of searching. As a result, 48 dumping records were obtained, with more incidents in Southeast, Northeast and South regions. São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro were the states with higher number of registers. Were registered 33 taxa of fish (18 genera and 15 species) and two hybrids, many of them invasive species. Most practitioners are not aware of the illegality of the act or possibility of environmental impact. The danger of ornamental dumping as to the opportunity for biological invasion, the propagule pressure employed, and the misconceptions about ecology in the videos are discussed. It is suggested an awareness of the aquarists and higher control over the hobby, where social networks are a new tool to identify disturbances that could damage natural environments.