Recifes Itacolomis

The Itacolomis Reef Complex is the largest reef complex in the Corumbau RESEX, covering about 50 km² made up of a dozen reef areas interspersed by channels. The Itacolomis are also the largest reef on the Royal Charlotte Bank, and without the barrier formed by their corals Ponta do Corumbau would not exist. This natural barrier lies close to Ponta do Corumbau, where the tour boats depart, and helps keep the sea at Corumbau calm. The reefs sit on a sand shoal that extends almost 6 miles east of Ponta do Corumbau, and near the center of the shoal they are exposed at low tide.

The complex is dominated by chapeirões, mushroom-shaped coral pinnacles like those of Abrolhos, which also appear along the edges of the reef. Among the reefs of the Abrolhos Bank, the Itacolomis were the only ones with a benthic community different from the rest of the region, more similar to that of the reefs along the Brazilian coast and of Atol das Rocas. This community is dominated by epilithic algae, with low cover of other groups, such as scleractinian corals.

During the record-breaking 2019 heat wave, the Itacolomis Reef Complex was one of the sites where researchers documented the first mass coral die-off recorded on South Atlantic reefs. That year, mortality of the fire coral Millepora alcicornis reached about 84% at Virada de Fora and 89% at Pedra do Silva.