Spearfishing is a popular activity practiced for recreation and subsistence along the tropical and subtropical coast of Brazil. Although being an economically important activity, the influence of species traits driving target preferences among recreational spearfishers have been poorly explored. Spearfishing is highly selective towards large trophy species, therefore its effects on top predators, which are generally threatened, have been widely reported as detrimental. Here we test if species traits are useful to predict spearfishers’ target preferences and the relationship between spearfishers’ experience with catch’s size and composition in a subtropical Brazilian rocky reef. Large macrocarnivores species and species that form schools associated with the pelagic habitat are predicted to form the core of target preferences by spearfishers. More experienced spearfishers captured larger fish than less experienced ones. Herbivores and macro-carnivorous fishes were the most important trophic groups contributing to catch composition biomass, being parrotfishes (Scarinae) the most selected. Spearfishers with more years of practice acknowledged that stocks of many targeted species have been depleted. Spearfishers claim that spearfishing is sustainable because their catches are selectively captured, but such selectivity is highly dependent on fisher experience, frequency and body size of available targets. Most importantly, spearfishing is highly selective for large and vulnerable individuals, especially big old fat fecund females, which are the individuals that need to be protected most. There is an urgent need to control species identity and size of captures to avoid stocks colapse and local functional extinctions.

ear鱼捕鱼是巴西热带和亚热带海岸人们为了娱乐和生存而开展的一项流行活动。尽管这是一项重要的经济活动，但对于娱乐性长矛造鱼者来说，驱动目标偏好的物种特征影响尚未得到很好的研究。ear鱼对大型奖杯物种具有高度选择性，因此，它对通常受到威胁的顶级掠食者的影响已被广泛报道为有害的。在这里，我们测试物种特征是否可用于预测南亚热带巴西礁石中sp鱼的目标偏好以及sp鱼的经验与渔获物的大小和组成之间的关系。大型食肉动物物种和与远洋生境相关的形成学校的物种预计将成为鱼叉渔民目标偏好的核心。有经验的鱼叉钓者比没有经验的鱼钓到更大的鱼。食草动物和大型肉食性鱼类是最重要的营养类群，它们有助于捕获生物质，是选择最多的鹦嘴鱼（Scarinae）。具有多年实践经验的鱼者承认，许多目标物种的种群已经枯竭。ear鱼渔民声称，ear鱼捕鱼是可持续的，因为它们的渔获被有选择地捕获，但是这种选择性在很大程度上取决于渔民的经验，频率和可用靶标的体型。最重要的是，对于大而脆弱的个体，特别是那些肥胖的大肥羊雌性大猩猩，这是最需要受到保护的个体，对鱼的捕捞具有高度的选择性。