Tourists on Brazil’s Recife beaches don’t run from sharks: they look for them

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Shark attacks on the urban beaches of Recife – Boa Viagem, Piedade and Candeias – have been occurring with some frequency for the past 3 decades, but despite authorities’ warnings and bans, the number of curious tourists is on the rise.

Most of the attacks, including the last 2 in July, occurred near the church in the Piedade neighborhood, a Carmelite chapel built practically on the seashore in the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, which borders Recife and is close to the international airport.

Attacks began to be registered since 1992, but the first one of which there are official records occurred almost 5 decades earlier, in 1947, when a young friar living at the church decided to take a swim in the sea on his day off and was fatally wounded by a shark.

The attacks resurfaced in the early 1990s because a nearby slaughterhouse dumped the blood of cattle into the sea, thereby drawing sharks. Despite the deactivation of the slaughterhouse, the presence of sharks was inevitable and the situation worsened with the remodeling of the Suape port.

Several studies suggest that the sharks’ natural habitat was affected by the enlargement of the port, the main in the state of Pernambuco and one of the largest in Brazil, and the animals began to seek the beaches of neighboring Recife to feed and, in the case of females, to spawn.

SHARK TOURISM

With the high tide and heavy rains that hit the capital of the state of Pernambuco recently, the authorities of Jaboatão dos Guararapes have restricted swimmers from Piedade beach and lifeguards, metropolitan guards, firemen, rescuers and police officers have taken over the surveillance of the place.

However, cabs, app transport cars, minibuses and tourist buses are constantly stopping in front of the tourist church where visitors do not miss an opportunity to take pictures of themselves with the danger signs, in addition to taking pictures outside the religious building.

Guilherme Augusto, who sells drinks and snacks at Piedade beach, said that the new tourists make a pilgrimage to the beach “to find out where it (the attack) occurred.”

Thais Leão, a tourist from the Amazonas state of Pará, admitted that despite the “fear” of approaching the beach, she “took the risk” to have her picture taken on the seashore right where the last 2 attacks occurred.

For travel agent Veronica Veve, “there is now a request in virtually all excursions and sightseeing tours to pass by the ‘shark beach’.”

In the traditional Boa Viagem Square, where a permanent handicrafts market is held, the shark key chains are always sold out and the best-selling T-shirt is the one with a print of a hungry shark with pointed teeth and messages alluding to a character that is already part of Recife’s daily life.

“Tourists who look for the objects always want a symbol of the shark and there isn’t a single key ring available because they’re all sold out. They don’t want any bottle opener unless it’s a shark,” artisan Romulo Ramos said.