{"id":13520,"date":"2017-01-21T19:45:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-21T19:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/?p=13520"},"modified":"2025-02-26T20:14:38","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T20:14:38","slug":"an-amazon-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/an-amazon-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"An Amazon adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In April 2016, many members of the public were amazed by the announcement of a gigantic new coral reef system in an unlikely place: at the mouth of the Amazon River.<\/p>\n\n

The reef is 3,668 square miles, and it goes from the border between Brazil and French Guiana to the Maranh\u00e3o state. The first of its kind, scientists are calling it one of the most important discoveries in marine ecology of the last decades.<\/p>\n\n

But this ecosystem is already under threat. The region where the Amazon River meets the Atlantic Ocean is also being seen as the next frontier of offshore oil exploration. Three different oil companies plan to start exploring there in the first half of 2017.<\/p>\n\n

Marine biologist and Greenpeace US Oceans Campaign Director John Hocevar has traveled down to Brazil to join the crew of the Esperanza<\/em> and a group of researchers who have set out to document this amazing natural wonder for the very first time. He\u2019ll be sharing Notes from the Field as he goes.<\/p>\n\n

January 21, 2017<\/h2>\n\n
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I am headed to Brazil to board the\u00a0Esperanza<\/em>\u00a0for three weeks. We will be working with a team of Brazilian scientists, using a small research submarine to explore a newly discovered reef for the first time. Best part: I will be piloting the submarine! Worst part: BP, Total, and a Brazilian oil company want to drill in the area. We don\u2019t even know what\u2019s down there, and it is already at risk. Hopefully, what we find in this expedition will make the Brazilian government reject these oil companies\u2019 plans.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

From Your Faithful Editor: <\/strong><\/em>The photo above of John was taken while he was part of a team conducting aerial assessment of environmental impacts of the Hurricane Rita in the Gulf of Mexico and coastal areas of Louisiana and Texas. This is not how he traveled to Brazil.<\/p>\n\n

Interestingly enough, John would return to this region a few years later to pilot a Dual Deep Worker submarine to support the work of scientists and researchers who were using Greenpeace\u2019s Arctic Sunrise<\/em> to investigate the aftermath of the tragic BP oil disaster.<\/p>\n\n

And, let\u2019s face it, this is a much more interesting photograph than one of John during his 12-hour layover in Brasilia on his way to the ship.<\/p>\n\n

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January 22, 2017<\/h2>\n\n

When I studied coral reef ecology in grad school back in the early 90s, we were taught that the Amazon was an ecological boundary. There were corals to the north, and corals to the south, but no real mixing of the two. Last year, Brazilian researchers published the surprising finding that there is actually a giant reef UNDER the plume of the Amazon, several miles offshore. What?!? Surely, no sunlight can get down there, so how is this possible? What lives there? Is this a whole new type of ecosystem, or biome? We are going to find out!<\/p>\n\n

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January 23, 2017<\/h2>\n\n
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We are in the port of Santana, at the mouth of the Amazon. I shared my morning tea with leaping dolphins and flocks of squawky parakeets. I love the tropics \u2013 everywhere I look I am surrounded by an incredible abundance of plants, birds, frogs, and insects.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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