Crôa de São Bento

The name Crôa comes from a regional corruption of "coroa", the local word for sandbanks: the croa is a strip of sediment made up mostly of the limestone skeletons of Halimeda algae, which at low tide turns into a small beach in the middle of the sea. This strip forms mainly where the reef meets the sediment carried by the Salgado River, which separates Maragogi from Japaratinga. The size of the croa changes, but for most of the year it is about 750 metres long. Because the formation is much longer than it is wide, fishermen call it a "Tira de Pedra" or "Tacis".

The community has traditionally used the reef for small-scale artisanal fishing, and tourism has also become part of its local use.

At the northern tip of the croa lies the Canal do Norte, with many coral colonies that shelter a variety of fish species, regarded as an excellent area for photography. Standouts among the channel's corals are fire coral (Millepora alcicornis) and the coral Mussismilia hartii. The coral Montastrea cavernosa, more common in deep areas, is also easily found there.