Effort and catch data per species making up for fisheries yield landed in 1993 in the city of Santarém were submitted to two techniques of multivaliate analysis: a factor analysis by the principal components method and a covariance one using the general lineal model (GLM). Results suggest fishing activities in the region is influenced by the life cycle peculiarities of target species, by the water cycle and the weather conditions in the system, as well as by the cultural biases and economic interests of the consumer market. The results revealed the directioning of fishery activities toward certain groups of species, and those patterns were identified: (a) the fishing of large catfishes for export (FACTOR1); (b) the between-seasons fishing of mapará (Hypophthalmus spp.) and pescada (Plagioscion spp.) in lakes, with local and for export components (FACTOR4); (c) the fishing of sedentary and/or migratory scaled fishes, targeted by small-scale commercial fisheries with local importance (FACTOR2; FACTOR3 and FACTORS), which includes important catches such as tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) and pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) in the lakes, or jaraqui (Semaprochilodus spp.) and pacu (Mylossoma spp. and Metynnis spp.) in rivers.
local fisheries; Lower Amazon; fisheries pattern