Locations Reached by Oil in 2019 and Subsequent Impacts in Environmental Protection Area of Costa dos Corais

Abstract

From August 2019 to December 2019, eleven Brazilian coastal states, most of them located in the country’s northeast, were reached by oil from a spill of unknown origin. There were oil traces and stains detected in many marine and coastal Conservation Unities (UC), including the Environmental Protection Area of Costa dos Corais (APACC), the widest federal marine UC. This article had the objective to gather information about the locations reached by the oil inside APACC, and about possible socioenvironmental impacts caused by the disaster in the affected municipalities. The geoprocessing software ArcGIS® 10.5 was used for this purpose, as well as research in scientific databases and institutional platforms about social, economic, and environmental aspects of the studied area. The authors verified that the municipalities of Maragogi, Japaratinga, and Porto de Pedras were the ones that presented the highest concentrations of reached locations in APACC and that the sectors of fishery and tourism may have been strongly impacted by this disaster. The results point to the necessity of evaluating, accompanying, and mitigating the oil impacts caused in the area, considering its socioeconomic and environmental relevance, especially related to the preservation of mangroves and coral reefs, and its ecosystemic services, that sustain the fishery and tourism in the region.