Diving in Brazil

[SandyB]

Hi! I am happy I found this wonderful forum with so much useful information.

I am going to Brazil soon and since my main interest is shipwrecks I am dedicating some time to dive on some shipwrecks there. Are there any laws or regulations that I should keep in mind whilst enjoying myself? I mean, do I need to get some permits from local authorities? And in case I find a golden coin can I keep it or will I get into trouble?
Can you share your experience? This is going to be the first time for me in Brazil so I am really looking forward to it.

 

[miketsp]

Depending on the source there are between 2000 and 10000 wrecks off the coast of Brazil.

The best site to start is:
Naufrágio

The highest concentration of wrecks in recreational depths is in Recife, state of Pernambuco but you're not going at a good time of the year for this. Ideal is from November to March. Outside this window currents are generally bad and viz drops significantly. But you may get lucky.
This operator routinely dives 20 wrecks in Recife:
Aquáticos

When I was in Recife December/January, the other operator had his boat out for maintenance but it's probably worth asking:
Projeto Mar


You could do the Corvette Ipiranga in Noronha but this is 55m to the deck and 60m to the sand. You don't mention your qualification level. This dive can be done as a discovery tech dive but it's not cheap.

I've never heard of any license being required to dive wrecks. You may occasionally need to show your c-card during dive boat inspections by the navy or to board a dive boat at a port. This is very rare.

If you find a single gold coin, well who's to know?

If you find anything significant, theoretically it belongs to the state so you need to read the rules that may allocate up to 40% of the value to you.

I'll point you at articles on the law (in Portuguese, but Google Translator does a good job).
Naufrágios - Legislação Brasileira - Shipwrecks: the Brazilian law
Naufrágios - Legislação Brasileira Atualização - Shipwrecks: the Brazilian law - Update

 

[danilocesar]

If you're interested in wrecks you should definitely visit Recife.

It has a lot of good wrecks to visit, and by the end of this year they're even planning to create some artificial wrecks using some old/useless/broken boeings crowding the airport.
However, you need to keep in mind that there's no diving in Recife between june to september, due to bad water conditions.

As miketsp suggested, you can ask "Projeto Mar" if they're still diving. I got my OW certification with them and the price was OK. If you want to get more comfort you probably want to dive with Aquaticos.

You can go do Fernando De Noronha, quite pricey, but the place is amazing.
I went to Corvette Ipirange once, they're going to ask you for your AOWD AND Nitrox certifications. Also you need to have ~50 logged dives.
It's not going to be cheap. I paid around u$450 for one dive there with Atlantis. It was my discovery tech.