Sό Semente – Only a Seed
In 2022, Carson Jeffres (UC Davis) with Dislene Torrente-Vilara (Universidade Federal de São Paulo) were selected for a UC Davis Global Affairs Seed Grant for International Activities to conduct a collaborative project with the Universidade Federal de São Paulo Instituto do Mar.
Seeds are often thought of as a start that will eventually grow into something larger than it originally started. In this case, the seed was a seed grant from UC Davis Global Affairs to develop a collaborative project with international partners working with a migratory fish along the southern coast of Brazil. The fish, tainha (Mugil liza), is a migratory mullet that supports an artisanal fishery and provides a sustainable protein source for local communities along the southern Brazilian coast. As with many fisheries around the world, an industrial fishery has entered the scene, and increased extraction, coupled with climate change and habitat degradation, resulted in declining populations and increased regulation and curtailment of the fishery. This is a story common to migratory fish across the globe.