NHAMUNDA...

In recent years, Amazon has been my second home. During the time of collection of fish when the river is low, I usually stay between 6 to 8 months alone in the "heart of the world" away from the European civilization, where I was born and raised. There are many expeditions in this part of the world wide known The Amazon! Always running after the fish that, for over 20 years, I have been in love with: the Discus.

Nhamunda

The island of Nhamunda has a special charm. Maybe as a result, it is always a pleasure to travel to this wonderful place.
This time the crew of our boat was made of 6 fishermen and 2 captains. The aim of the two captains is to drive during all day and night, in order for the boat not to stop
unnecessarity, allowing for a fast trip. We only stop for fuel and some food items on the way to Santarem Nhamunda.

From the Tapajós river in Santarem, the second city of the state of Pará in Amazonia, it will take us 4 to 5 days of travel by river to the island of Nhamunda.

To our destination we navigate the river Amazona, so called "King of Rivers", passing next to the river Trombetas on the way to Oxemirina. Common names today, but just a few years ago, I had only seen these on maps or photographs. Today these rivers are my roads, its shores are my sidewalks!

We are in January and this will be one of the last trips to the island to catch and select fish. Two days ago, I had received a phone call from one of Nhamunda fisherman who said that the river was filling fast. Knowing that some fish were kept in boxes by the fishermen of Nhamunda, we preferred to look for them in the river, instead. The reason is simple, usually inside the boxes the fish loses weight. Small and closed wood boxes causes the Discus to get bacteria, loose their tails and turn their eyes white and often blind. For may years, the fishermen have the habit of catching fish and storing them in these boxes for several weeks. this is wrong and unhealthy for the fish. Maybe this is the reason why so many wild Discus exist in the market that are abused, poor and with
diseases.
Over these few years in Amazon, I have tried to persuade the fishermen to improve these storing boxes, placing these strategically in shallow water and always using boxes as large as possible. This awareness is complicated because their methods have been passed from generation to generation. Despite this, I feel that I have been well understood, and this effort has let me achieve better conditions for the fish captured a few weeks before. Some boxes as 3 m wide by 3 meters tall. Fish stored in these conditions, should not remain in these for more than two weeks, because they loose too much weight.

These real incubators made of plastic network, store more than 500 discus in good condition, provided that these boxes are well built.
Still, I have always preferred to select fish right after they are caught. The pleasure and adrenaline to find a magnificent Discus during fishing is something indescribable, only those who love Discus can understand! But let´s go back to our travel to Nhamunda!

We left Santarem around 7 am, with no wind and with the Rio Tapajos calm and peacefull. The day was already born and everything was ready: crew, food, beverages, Diesel, sleeping nets, diving glasses, flashlights, batteries and many plastic baskets, known as basquetas, in order to bring the fish that we are going to capture! As the journey is long, it does not work to try to bring the fish packed in plastic bags with oxygen, unlike what we are able to do in other communities near Santarem.
The several days of travel are always good to establish a closer relationship with those I call my "family in the Amazon": the fishermen. Humble people, who were born in many communities along the river where we will sail by, dedicated and always ready to serve and help in everything that is needed.
Although all of us speak Portuguese as our mother language, my accent makes it very hard to be understood.
These are days and nights telling stories of fisheries, rare fish that appear, scary soties of anacondas, alligators, electric fish, etc. orsimply looking at the river which is too dry this time of the year. During these long trips, the easiness and peace of mind given by a landscape often boring, alows us time to read, write or photograph the many "iguarapes" (little ponds with crystal water) around the lakes and the rivers, where in the shores small communities appear, consisting of small houses of wood craft Places of a unique beauty and increasingly threatened. We visited some places along the journey in search of new fish as runners ("Corydoras") and TETRA ("piabas").
Throughout the trip, the stories continue to be told and in the Oxemirina stop, Jorge, one of the most experienced fishermen, talks with an old fisherman from the community where we buy fruit and ice. In a small boat the old fisherman Miguel with his old dog and some large fish networks, looks at some Discus books that I take and recongizes the fish he sees. He asks us whether we like the "acaras discus" he sees (the name by which the discus are known among fishermen of the Amazon). We explain that our work and reason for the trip is exactely that! The old fisherman Miguel laughs and says, "here where I live is very close to a lake where I fish to feed the family, the dog and sell fish! When i launch the network, it always gets acaras discus, I then take some to my dog and to eat! "There are thousands" according to Miguel, but unfortunately the lake is very low and it is difficult to get there: Furthermore, the piranhas are eating them since most of those fish can no longer find a place to hide under the "tronqueiras" (roots) which are already out of water. "No Exit"! "I do not like these because the smell is very intense" pitchu "but my dog loves to slaughter them".
Usually the discus hide under the Tronqueiras (trunks and branches of tree) to escape their predators. They live in shoals and always together, rarely moving from the place where they were born. Many discus that we have captured have piranhas bites, these being perhaps their worst enemy.Stories such as this fisherman´s are countless, from places where man never entered to capture discus and other fish in a huge Amazon river and its tributaries. It is impossible to know all, but certainly with a huge variety of fish. Jorge gets the contact details from the old fisherman Miguel after he explain where the lake is so that when we return we will visit both. It is worth remembering that we are at the end of the season and soon the river begins to rise. Between August / September and February /March is the great season of "fishing". The river is low, forming many lakes and iguarapés of very difficult access, where small "rabetas" (small boats craft) can not enter.
The fish are trapped in small spaces where the path is often done on foot over tens of kilometers, with the basquetas in hand, until we get to the place where they are trapped.
The trip is full of different emotions and moments. Because the river is very low, we end up bogged in some places already very low: all of us leave the boat to help and, within minutes, we are navigating again. After passing by some communities, including Obidos, Nazare Good Help, Holy Land, etc., we arrive at our objective: the island Nhamunda. This small island with only 15,000 inhabitants live mainly from fishing.
Over the 5 days we will remain on the island, we go fishing on several different places in search of discus fish. While at the island, you can find discus brown semi royais and royais (fewer), in other places we find fish with a redish tone. When we get to Nhamunda, we are told that in the Maracanã (a place known for discus of more than 10 inches in size), it is now prohibited to fish. The head of the community recently elected by the inhabitants is against the fishing of ornamental fish. So, we try to talk with
the community and its leader, but without any results. Fishermen from Maracanã still try to persuade its leader, because for these fishermen catching Discus is a way of life, of providing for their families at the time of fishing for ornamental fish.
One less place to capture discus, I thought!
The first nights spent fishing, did not happen the way they wanted. The big tropical rains of large volume of water makes impossible to fish. On the first day, after 8 hours we only caught 20 fish semi royal brown and about 8 royais. While in the first two days we tried to fish near the island on the third day we decided to start fishing in the High Nhamunda. The rain had stopped and it was a good opportunity to navigate a little further.from the Isle of Nhamunda to the high Nhamunda it takes several hours by paths that only those who were born there van recognize. Always in small boats , with small engines called "rabetas". According to fishermen, this year the river would rise very quickly and I was getting high in the Nhamunda where we were looking for the blue Heckel. The marks of the trees show the rise and fall of river.
On the third night we finally fish. Basquetas and pulsares (nets) ready, batteries for flashlights and 4 small boats each with 2 people. In the middle of the branches we began to find the first Heckel's blue Nhamunda. In the early hours we found many crossed fish, blue fish (blue type turqueza in the hybrids) without the bar of Heckel. Very nervous fish that, even after being inside the tanks, frighten easily. I consider that these blue Heckel discus are the wildest Discus in the Amazon.
The water has a pH of 5.1 and a temperature of 24 degrees Celsius at around 3 AM. Throughout the night we captured some fabulous fish, many are headblue up to half of the body, with eyes red with sizes above 7 inches. Some are less round so we return them to the river, others with bites of piranhas have the same destination. The basquetas become filled and after 7 hours of fishing, only in my vessel, we brought 91 selected fish. This is what I call a great fishery!! The other boats and the other fishermen bring much fish, but lower quality and most are for a second selection, already in the wooden boxes. During the fishery, we have hours and hours of suspense .... the silence of the jungle is mixed with some noise from monkeys along the shores. This region has few alligators, rarely found here due to the temperature of the water and because it is too acid. The darkness prevents from observing what is around us, only trees and water of the river extremely crystalline. My fisherman work hard to get as much fish as possible, diving constantly. They come often to the boat to bring fish within the "Pulsar" (net).
The next mornings are to choose the fish caught and return to the river the badly shapped ones, with yellow eyes, etc. Several hours in the water to remove fish, looking at all details. From the time they are selected in basquetas, we start to prepare for departure to Santarem and here starts the Odisea of these fish, until they reach the aquarium of its master, hobby seeker, breeder, etc.
The fish make the entire journey inside the baskquetas, with a large tablespoon of salt for each 10 litre of water from where they were captured during the whole return journey.
All care is needed. The quality of water within the basquetas needs control in order for the fish survive and the temperature can not rise during that trip (due to the exposure of fish to the strong sun that hits the boat along the many miles to go until we get to Santarem).
On the return journey, for several times, we have to stop and pull over next to the shore due to heavy rains that, along with the wind, causes waves with more than a meter high. The boat seems to swing as if on the high sea and the nets where some sleep slam into eachother, hoping that the weather will improve soon, because it is a waste of time. My concern is, of course, the fish and their survival. Trying to arrive at our destination alive is now the main objective.
We stop only for fuel and move on. We eat the delicious fish that we bought from the fishermen in Nhamunda and is kept on ice for the return journey. During the trip, Jorge reminds us that it would be important to contact the old fisherman Miguel to see the lake that had spoken about. The stop is short in Oxemirina just to see what kind of discus are in the Lake. Huge fish, over 10 inches, with fabulous brown tones, very round but ... unfortunately many bitten by piranhas, its marks clearly visible. It is planned that next time we will try to collect and research this region that, according to the old fisherman Miguel, nobody has ever caught acaras Discus.
The return trip is always faster because we benefit from the strong river current as we go downriver. The discus caught are excellent, we got a bit of everything and many were left in the boxes, as we had no more string space. Aomng others, we bring Blue Heckel, very large ones, a few Half Moon with a blue head and half body.