Foz do Amazonas: Understand what the Amazonian corals are – 06/08/2023 – Environment

Last month, the president of Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), Rodrigo Agostinho, denied Petrobras’ request for a license to explore for oil in Foz do Amazonas, after following up on a technical opinion from the environmental agency.

According to Agostinho, the company did not present enough data to prove that, if exploration starts, there will be no environmental impact in the region.

In addition to the political clash, which caused a crisis between the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, and President Lula (PT), oil exploration in the region collides with international issues, due to the proximity to the French Guiana border, and socio-environmental issues. , due to the supposed economic impact it could bring to the region.

There is also the risk of a major ecological imbalance in an area that, until recently, was virtually known to scientific society, the great Amazonian coral reef.

Although some research started in the 1970s, Amazonian corals were described in more detail in 2016, when researchers made a scientific expedition that resulted in a study in the scientific journal Science Advances.

The reef, with an estimated size of around 1,000 km in a continuous line, with 9,000 km^two (but which, depending on projections, could reach 15,000 km^two) area, concentrates a unique diversity of fish, corals, algae and sponges, in addition to other marine organisms.

“There are other mesophotic corals [como é chamado o tipo de ambiente formado na plataforma, onde há uma zona de profundidade intermediária] in the world, but this one has a unique characteristic, which is that it is a transition zone between the Caribbean and the Amazonian fauna”, explains Ronaldo Francini-Filho, biologist and professor at USP’s Center for Research in Marine Biology (Cebimar).

The maximum depth found in the reef zone of Foz do Amazonas is 220 m – a depth where there is no longer any light, and where organisms such as algae (rotoliths) and phyto and zooplankton inhabit, in addition to some deep-sea fish.

“This substrate provides nutrients for organisms that live in the region called plumes, which is just above, where there is light”, he says.

In the intermediate zone, with a depth of approximately 150 m, sponges and corals with high limestone deposition are found, forming reefs. In this region, other fish access the site both as a refuge area and as a feeding and reproduction area.

In this varied ecosystem, where there is a mixture of luminosity, there are several species of corals, sponges and fish that live there, described in recent years. Some fish of economic importance, such as the red snapper (Lutjanus purpureus), which represents one of the main animals fished on the coast of Amapá and Pará, having moved around R$ 100 million in the municipality of Bragança (PA), about 400 km from Belém, in 2019.

“There are some crustaceans, such as the uçá crab, which live in coastal regions and in the mangroves on the coast of Amapá and Pará, but the larvae will migrate to the reef, where they grow to become an adult individual that then returns to the mangrove. The same happens with some species of fish. It is a very rich and ecologically important environment”, says Enrico Marone, oceanologist and spokesperson for Greenpeace.

The environmental NGO was the first to act in a campaign against exploitation in the region, in 2017, and encouraged scientific expeditions that helped to show the sensitivity of the area.

As one of the wells Petrobras wants to explore, well 59, is less than 40 km from the Amazonian reef, a drilling accident could cause an unprecedented ecological imbalance in the ecosystem.

“But you can’t just look at well 59, you need to look at the sedimentary basin as a whole. What Petrobras presented was a localized study, given that the entire region has unique hydrography and synergy”, explains Marone.

The Foz do Amazonas region is also very sensitive from a water point of view, explains Francini-Filho. “It is a region of very strong marine currents, with tidal variations among the highest in the world, which can reach 7, 8 meters difference. Imagine if there is a spill and at high tide all this oil arrives in the coastal region, or is deposited at the bottom of the reef?”, he warns.

The rescue in case of an accident, as shown by the Sheetit would take about 43 hours to reach the site, too long to prevent an impact on local ecosystems.

Petrobras said it will present a more in-depth study and request the exploration license again. The studies presented so far have been insufficient and use modeling that Ibama considered to be of low resolution.

“When you do low-resolution studies, you can’t accurately model how long, if an accident occurs, it will reach other areas. Studies carried out by environmental organizations show that this time can be up to ten hours, and that would make an unfeasible quick response”, states Francini-Filho.

Another aspect is the scarcity of knowledge of the region, which was recently explored, but it is still estimated that about 90% of the local marine biodiversity is unknown.

“Studies carried out with mesophotic reefs in other parts of the world show that, for every ten dives, three new species of fish are described. This for regions with a fauna, from a biogeographical point of view, less sensitive than that of Foz do Amazonas” , concludes the biologist.

As the region is in transition between the Caribbean and Amazonian fauna —an “ecological springboard”, says Marone—, exploring its biodiversity can even help to understand the processes of exchange of organisms in the two regions.

For this reason, scientists hope that the area will be included as a Conservation Unit, or park, where there is a stronger restriction for economic exploitation.

In a note, the ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute of Biodiversity) stated that “the creation of conservation units was resumed only in this administration, and that there are proposals for the creation of a CU in this region, however, it is important to emphasize that this process is part of the Ministry of the Environment to the Chief of Staff”.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}