Fish news: perceptual skills, technique and distributed cognition in mullet fishing

Abstract This paper presents an investigation about perception of the environment, technique and distributed cognition, with fishermen and schools of mullets, on beaches in southern Brazil. We discuss the relationship of audiovisual research techniques with the techniques of the body and operational sequences involved in the lookout for schools of mullets, paddling of non-motorized canoes and net casting, revealing knowledge embedded in these practices. The examination of the exchange of pictures and videos of fish among fishermen on their smartphones reveals a distributed cognition system that includes radio communication and other traditional ways of obtaining and confirming “fish news”. This is a collective form of monitoring the ways that fish appear on the coast. The objective of the study is to understand the use of “new technologies” without disassociating them from the technicity of collective practices and knowledge systems of artisanal fishing.