Illegal fishing in Brazil river puts lives at risk.

Illegal fishing mafias are threatening the lives of those who promote sustainable fishing programs in the Brazilian Amazon. Highly organized gangs of poachers with suspected ties to international drug trafficking groups prey on endangered Amazon species such as the pirarucu. The rampant and highly lucrative illegal trade in fish and wildlife plagues Brazil’s isolated and lawless tri-border with Colombia and Peru. Sustainable fishing engineer José Maria Batista Damasceno has dedicated his life to convincing small riverside communities that sustainable fishing programs will benefit them more than the quick, short-term profits offered by the illegal fishing mafias that pillage the region’s rivers and Indigenous lands.