The Cagarras Archipelago is a group of five islands located in the Atlantic Ocean, about 5 kilometers from Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Collecting on these islands is part of our routine. We have established a partnership with ICMBio, which carries out periodic management at least twice a month in the archipelago. It's voluntary work and certified divers always volunteer to take part.
The boat leaves in front of the floating restaurant located in Urca and our journey takes approximately 40 minutes. From leaving the pier to arriving at the dive site, it usually takes a few hours, as the researchers take the opportunity to check the site for illegal fishing.
The choice of spot is always unknown and varies according to the sea conditions, the wind or simply because one location needs coral removal more than another. On our five trips to the archipelago, we collected on the Comprida and Redonda islands.
Ilha Comprida has an elongated shape, low altitude and easy access. That's why it's the best known and most visited island in the archipelago. The submerged portion is predominantly rocky, with many burrows and a maximum depth of around 13 meters. On the south face, the rocky shore is steeper, exposed to the pounding of the waves and almost 40 meters deep. It's a dive with lots of marine life and passages that we divers love.
On Redonda Island, the depths can also vary from 2 meters to almost 40 meters on the coasts facing the ocean. While we're on the boat preparing the collection material and setting up the diving equipment, we can look up at the sky and see hundreds of frigate birds nesting on the islands.
In both places where we dived, we saw a large amount of sun coral, mainly Tubastraea tagusensis. An important fact is that, over the course of one year of management, more than 1 ton of sun coral has already been removed from the archipelago, bringing the total to 25,389 colonies by the end of 2023.
In January 2024, our team took part in the first action, removing around 70 kilos in one day. Everyone's collaboration is being essential for the control of these species in an environmentally protected site and we are very happy to contribute to the removal and furthermore subsidize our research with this material.
Karine Venegas Macieira
