Abstract

Cittarium pica, commonly known in Puerto Rico as Burgao, has been hand-collected in the Caribbean for thousands of years and is considered an important artisanal fishery. Despite its importance and concerns about overfishing there have been limited studies of its ecology or socio-economic value. C. pica is a slow moving and conspicuous grazer with a limited intertidal habitat range which are likely factors contributing to the perception that the species is being overfished. Via an interdisciplinary approach based on deep ethnography, structured open-ended interviews, and classical intertidal field techniques, we focused on three areas in Puerto Rico to study the fishery. We interviewed a total of 46 commercial fishers, 22 recreational fishers, and 8 restaurant owners. We sampled 19 intertidal sites as well as legally landed and poached catches of C. pica. We recorded local ecological knowledge, fishing techniques, uses for both shells and meat, as well as the cultural and economic value of the species within small fishing communities. We found that the status of the population of C. pica, and the distribution networks are difficult to identify, C. pica populations are patchily distributed in space, individual fishers are rare, and fishing effort is episodic. C. pica‘s value fluctuates dependent on the size of the snail and the form in which it is sold. Fishers in general perceive that the species is in decline and that regulations are not working.

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