Brazil supports the only coral reefs in the South Atlantic, spread along 3,000 km of the coast, from 0°50’S to 18°00’S1. Coastal reefs that emerge on lower tides are an important feature of this region, inspiring city names like Recife (reef in Portuguese), providing coastal protection and most of the catches of the artisanal fisheries that dominate the region.
Keys numbers
1,226
Total area of coral reefs (km2)
0.47%
Proportion of the world’s coral reefs
1
Countries with coral reefs
4
Marine Ecoregions of the World (MEOW) (i)
(i) Marine Ecoregions of the World (MEOW) is a biogeographic classification of the world’s coasts and shelves (Spalding et al., 2007).