Many do not understand the difficulty of getting the amount of Wild Discus allowed by Brazilian Law during such a short space of time . That it takes the Amazon Rivers to descend and to rise. As we have already mentioned, we have a quota of 4000 Wild Fish by Brazilian law. The Amazon Rivers usually begin to descend in May, June and only in September it is possible to collect Wild Discus. In the past, water in the Rivers had only begun to rise in January .
Of course, all this depends on Mother Nature. If we do not see, for example the Season of 2018/2019. The Rivers started to go down in May, very slowly, but until October they did not go down enough to hold any collection. At the end of October we started to finally select the first Wild Discus. The water has dropped in an extraordinarily fast way and by the end of November it has begun to rise.
In fact we had about 45 days to collect and select 4000 wild discus in different communities. All very far from one another in ways almost made only by boat.
The difficulty was huge even more when we chose only the Wild Discus that interest us. Those who have good shapes, large size, small eyes and no bar defects. This selection has to be made fast because there is not much time to lose. Sometimes we end up doing 24 hours by boat and stop in only two communities where we have less than 3 hours to select the best Wild Discus.
Stress is always great but in Season 2018/2019 it was even bigger to get the whole stock together for a year. Many people have no idea how everything works, because when the river rises the Wild Discus they enter the forest inside.
Besides being scattered it is totally impossible to find and capture them. More than that they begin to reproduce as soon as the Rivers begin to rise. The rains also contribute to this factor as is logical with the chemistry of the water to change. At these times we begin to see the slightly thinner and darker fish typical of when they start breeding.
It was an atypical season. In the last years, it is almost impossible to predict when the Amazon Rivers rise and fall. Probably due to climactic changes. The reality however is that this is the phase of immense work and of an organization taken to the extreme.
Runs from one side to the other and often imponderable situations happen. I often say that they are the " Unforeseen Amazonicos" I give several examples !
Other times a storm struck and the box turned. Others simply the fishermen did not feel like working and fishing. So many trips are waste of time, boat oil costs, etc.
" Unforeseen Amazonicos" over the course of these 12 years there are numerous stories perhaps one day in a book about memories tell some of them. They are part of life in the Amazon.
So many think the Wild Discus are always available to be caught what is a wrong thought. Companies need to be well organized to get them together. Much more difficult for companies like the Santarem Discus Company that from the 10 years that it was constituted , prefers to choose them one by one. If we wait for the fishermen to do the quality, it would never be the one for which , we are recognized and the costs would be much lower.
The question is always the same in 3 months is necessary a huge logistics that we have improved in the last 10 years. The great problem of the Amazon is the absence of Logistics.
If we lose a lot of time from the usual 3 months we can lose the time of capture and collection. All the time is short and the staff works in a more professional way. Collect 4000 Wild Discus after the select, pack and send to the company is hard work that requires all Santarem Discus team the main focus.
Vitor Hugo Quaresma
