Saco Grande

The Concar was the second cargo ship of a series built in Bilbao, Spain, and was launched in 1957. On her first voyage, she left Torrevieja, Spain, with calls at Barcelona, Valencia, Málaga, Seville and Santos, bound ultimately for Asunción, Paraguay. She sailed from Spain on 15 September 1959 under the command of Captain Antônio Olindo, with 18 crew and 1,141 tonnes of olive oil, olives, cork and iron oxide. In the rain, with speed reduced and a lookout posted, the ship struck an obstacle at 3 a.m. and ran aground at Ponta de Pirassununga. The crew took shelter at the bow and later reached the rocks of the shore by ropes.

Of the cargo, only 17 tonnes were officially salvaged, and dozens of small boats went out to the ship at night to loot it. Bottles of perfume that were not on the manifest turned up on the shore near the wreckage, raising suspicions of smuggling and of a deliberate change of course. In 1962, divers recovered from the bottom parts of the engine room, the propeller, the shaft, the rudder and the anchors, and in March 1963 the salvage was abandoned because of rough seas. A model of the Concar and items taken from the ship, such as the compass, are on display at the Ilhabela Nautical Museum. The location of the wreckage has not yet been confirmed, although some divers say they have been there.

In the region, the fauna includes large passing and bottom-dwelling fish, cetaceans, hundreds of microorganisms and species never studied. In Ilhabela, the water averages around 22 °C and can reach 27 °C from mid-January until the arrival of autumn. In early summer, thermoclines can occur in the region, with extremely cold water in a certain depth range.