The Faces of the Capitalist Modernization of Fishing in the Far South of Brazil from a Perspective of Socioenvironmental Oceanography (1940s to 1990s)

The goal of this article is to analyze the effects of capitalist modernization on the fishing industry located in Brazil’s far south from a perspective of socioenvironmental oceanography. Socioenvironmental oceanography builds on the contributions of historical materialism that prioritizes the study of the material foundations that support the process of capitalist accumulation. Within this perspective, the object of analysis shifts to one that is centered around the production of (ethno)oceanographic spaces. We argue that the production of these spaces result in the creation of public policies, which are geared towards mobilizing material and non-material resources for an epistemic community. This community was promoted to being a center of calculation whose supposed goal was to find ways to improve the bioeconomic “sustainability” of fishery resources. This process destroys fishing resources, as well as traditional/artisanal fishing systems and territories. In addition, it sets the stage for material and non-material precedents based around the spatial planning of marine areas that goes back to the foundations of the blue economy.