The purse seining fleet that lands in Itajaí harbor, SC, fishes in a large region of southern coast off Brazil, concentrating its activities on the continental shelf between Imbituba (28°20’S) and Ubatuba (23°20’S) in depths from 10m to 70m. The objective of the present study is to verify the relative capture of purse-seiners and the spatio-temporal variation of landings between 1997 and 1999. A total of 753 landing records were analyzed. The continental shelf was divided in 4 sectors: Imbituba-Itajaí (sector 5), Itajaí-Cananéia (6), Cananéia-Santos (7) and Santos-Ubatuba (8) and those subdivided in depths up to 40 m (sub-sector a) and between 40 and 80 m (b). The Brazilian sardine (Sardinella brasiliensis) was the dominant species captured in all sectors, representing, on average 87% of the landings in 1997, and only 40% in 1999. The atlantic thread herring (Opisthonema oglinum) occured in the sectors 5ab and 6ab, and corresponded to 15% of the captures, while the atlantic bumper (Chloroscombrus chrysurus) was a species captured exclusively in depths up to 40 m in sectors 6 and 7. Both species increased their participation in the captures between 1997 and 1999. Demersal species, such as white croaker (Micropogonias furnieri) and catfish (Netuma spp.), occurred exclusively in depths up to 40 m in sectors 5 and 6, exhibiting significant landings since 1998. In general, the results suggest that the most important fishing area of the purse-seiners was between Itajaí and Cananéia and that the fishery changed from mono to multispecific in the studied period.