Natureza

The Natureza was a 16.70 m fishing and research boat. She and the Riobaldo, another research boat, had been laid up at the Cepene pier since 2006, too deteriorated to be restored. On the initiative of ICMBio, both were sunk with a focus on conservation, research and dive tourism. The sinking was carried out by the Federal Police using explosives, about 7 km off the coast, in an operation that began at 5 a.m. and ended at 10:30 a.m. with around 50 people.

The Natureza and the Riobaldo came to rest 40 m apart on the bottom. The chosen area had little life, and the idea is for the ships to become an artificial reef and attract marine species, which allows researchers to follow this colonization. With this sinking, the artificial shipwreck park of Pernambuco grew to 14 ships.