Summary Sustainability and management issues are discussed for eight fishery production systems (FPS) in the state of Parana´ , Brazil, from an interdisciplinary perspective. FPS were defined after a set of multidisciplinary classification criteria, in an attempt to conceive fishing activities as a new level of integration between natural and social systems. Systems were compared using the Rapid Appraisal of Fisheries Status (RAPFISH) methodology, with 48 scored attributes, grouped in five evaluation fields (ecological, economic, social, technological and political). Systems were also analyzed for a subset of 14 attributes selected as sustainability indicators. All systems from Parana´ showed a poor sustainability profile, yet for different reasons. Two groups of systems proved consistent: traditional systems, and the motorized shrimp trawl systems on the coastal shelf. The traditional systems are historically ancient, employ little technology, show a large diversity of fishing practices, and preserve traditional management. The second is a modern group of systems, with a gradient of technological intensification from motor pirogues or canoes to entrepreneurial trawlers; these systems are market-oriented, intensive and ecologically aggressive, but their fishermen have better living conditions. The methodology showed a great potential for offering interdisciplinary interpretations of fishery dynamics, especially in situations of scant information and several systems to compare. Yet, the analysis of sustainability proved strongly affected by the choice of attributes, which necessarily constitute a small, oversimplified fraction of reality. Management should seek a broader consideration of the complexity of socioeconomic and natural processes that govern fisheries in order to recognize differences among systems and adequately address particular development issues and critical points. A viable way to do this could be the consideration of the fishery system as a management unit, with greater participation of stakeholders to better understand the specificities and particular needs of the systems.