Small‐scale fisheries provide food and livelihoods for thousands of people along the Brazilian coastline. However, considerable uncertainties still surround the extent to which artisanal and subsistence fisheries contribute to the total of national landings and their historical ecological significance. Fisheries monitoring is deficient in Brazil, and historical records are limited to irregular accounts spanning the last few decades, while this coastline has supported human populations for at least 6,000 years. Here, we estimate pre‐Columbian subsistence catches for a large subtropical estuary in southern Brazil. Our results suggest that prehistoric populations may have extracted volumes of fish biomass higher than or comparable with historical subsistence fisheries in the region, and that the latter is likely underestimated. If a long‐term perspective is required to evaluate the current economic value and status of fisheries in subtropical and tropical South America, this should go beyond the historical time interval and integrate the contribution of pre‐Columbian archaeology.

中文翻译：

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哥伦布前时期的渔业在南美亚热带河口进行重建

小型渔业为巴西海岸线上的数千人提供了食物和生计。但是，手工和自给性渔业对全国登陆总量的贡献及其历史生态意义仍然存在很大的不确定性。巴西的渔业监测不足，历史记录仅限于过去几十年的不定期账目，而这条海岸线已为人类提供了至少6000年的支持。在这里，我们估计了巴西南部一个大型亚热带河口的哥伦布前生存渔获量。我们的结果表明，史前种群的鱼类生物量提取量可能高于或高于该地区的历史生计渔业，而后者可能被低估了。