Saco do Funil - Alcatrazes

In the most sheltered part of the main island of Alcatrazes, Saco do Funil was a firing range of the Brazilian Navy, which calibrated its ships' guns in artillery drills by aiming at the rocky shores of the cove. The old targets painted on the rocks are still visible today. The firing led the Navy to close the region to navigation between 1998 and 2008, and access restrictions linked to the military training lasted until 2016. That year, on 2 August, the Alcatrazes Archipelago Wildlife Refuge was created, covering 67,409 hectares. In December 2018 visits to the refuge began on an experimental basis, and scuba diving at Alcatrazes was opened to the public again after more than 30 years of prohibition.

At the site, octopus burrows are common, surrounded by a large amount of shells and crab remains. At Alcatrazes, garoupas, bodiões and schools of enxada tend to surround divers during visits. A passive acoustic monitoring hydrophone was installed at the entrance of Saco do Funil for the purpose of recording cetaceans and vessels in the Refuge.

The refuge can be visited all year round, but weather and ocean conditions for navigation and scuba diving tend to be better from November to May. In the region, whales tend to be seen more frequently from June to September.