Recife Sebastião Gomes

Sebastião Gomes Reef is an island-shaped reef complex in the Coastal Arc of the Abrolhos Bank, close to the mouth of the Caravelas River, and is part of the Ponta da Baleia/Abrolhos Environmental Protection Area. It is made up of emerging reefs where pinnacles merge into larger continuous banks.

Open to fishing, the reef is under heavy fishing pressure and, together with Parcel das Paredes, is among the unprotected coastal reefs subject to the highest fishing pressure in the Abrolhos region. In scientific studies, it served as a control area with no fishing restrictions, compared against the no-take reefs of Abrolhos Marine National Park. In a 2009–2010 study, it was identified as the most degraded of the reefs assessed on the Abrolhos Bank. Research recorded very few coral colonies there, with 3.9% cover, macroalgal cover above that of the protected reefs, and low fish biomass.

Zoanthids dominate the tops of the pinnacles, and their cover rose from 19% to 34% between 2007 and 2017. The high nitrogen concentration measured on the reef may be linked to its proximity to the Caravelas River and the town of Caravelas. In 2017, a study assessed that the reef's health was probably threatened by increasing mud linked to human activities, such as deforestation and mining waste.