At the break of dawn, Manoel Reboucas embarks on his small motor boat into the sea near Copacabana, serving as a poignant reminder of the longstanding fishing collective that thrived here before the beach gained its widespread recognition as Rio de Janeiro’s most iconic destination.

But these days Reboucas and his colleagues are struggling to keep their livelihood afloat in the face of industrial fishing and a waning interest from young people.

After sailing a few kilometers and scanning the horizon, Reboucas turns off the engine and begins to collect the net that he has placed the day before, where several croakers and anchovies have been trapped.

“The shoals have decreased a lot, they are no longer coming like before,” laments Reboucas, 63, president of the Z13 Copacabana fishermen’s collective, founded in 1923.

Unsustainable fishing practices from both artisanal fishers and commercial trawlers, combined with difficulty attracting young people, is threatening the profession, says Reboucas – though not for his son Manasi, 34.

Even when the fishing is poor, “the feeling of being here is renewing,” he says.

In addition to the presence of large industrial fishing boats, artisanal fishing is also hemmed in by waste from the city and oil exploration in the region, says sociologist Lara Mattos, from the NGO Nucleo Canoas.

Together with the fishermen’s collective, the group is coordinating a training course for new, young fishermen, a project that is part of a compensation agreement signed between the prosecutor’s office of Rio de Janeiro and the U.S. oil company Chevron (whose share was later acquired by Brazil’s PRIO oil company) after a spill of more than 3,000 barrels of crude oil in an offshore field off the coast of Rio state, in 2011 and 2012.

The objective is to keep alive a trade that contributes to – rather than harms – environmental preservation.