Artisanal fishing requires that the participants have ethnoecological knowledge allowing them to use the fishery resource with the sustainability of the praxis guaranteed. The economic, social, and cultural activities of those people depend upon the local biota and the implicit environmental cycles. Human communities relying directly on their natural resources for subsistence, usually have a detailed knowledge of their environments.

The bulk of Brazilian fishing is based on mangrove ecosystems whose species spend most of their life cycle in those environments. In Brazil, artisanal fishing is fundamentally relevant because this activity produces food, for commercial purposes and a means of subsistence.

The diversity of coastal ecosystems and their abundance of natural resources have attracted human communities since ancient times.