Since 1996, when we developed the sub-project "O Tempo da Fábrica" (The Factory Time), part of the RENAS project, we observed an economic flattening in the fishing industries and an unemployment crisis in this sector. The present work tried to investigate the reasons that lead fishing industrialists to create cooperatives in the fishing industries in Belém and the workers to accept the creation of these cooperatives, trying to unveil the articulation between the reports of the entrepreneurs and the workers and to know who the beneficiaries are. The methodology used was direct observation in the field work and the collection techniques used were oral accounts and open interviews with workers and union members connected to the industrial fishing activity. It was verified that in the fish factories the entrepreneurs are adopting the "partnership system", whose beneficiaries are themselves and not the workers. One of the strategies is the formation of cooperatives of former employees that were not compensated after the closing of the fishing industries; others are cooperatives of fishing professionals and associations of artisanal fishermen, from the industrial fishing industry, that seek financing to buy boats. Later on, with the resources acquired with the production, they intend to implant fish farming, which is configured as another alternative for income and employment.
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