Brazil Boat Accident Trends: Rivers, Bays and Overloaded Decks

Two- and three-deck passenger and cargo riverboats at a floating port in the Amazon
File photo: passenger and cargo riverboats at a floating port in the Amazon. Most deadly boat accidents in Brazil happen on rivers. Photo: James Martins via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.
Sinkings persistUpdated 20 October 2026

Trend summary

  • Health Ministry records cited by Agência Brasil counted 1,289 deaths from boat accidents over ten years to 2017, and 708 of them (about 55%) were in the North.
  • The Navy logged 998 sinkings in 2015 and 898 in 2016. It blamed 72% of accidents on recklessness, lack of skill or negligence.
  • The worst recent disasters were on passenger boats with no reliable passenger list: Xingu and Salvador in August 2017, the Anna Karoline III in 2020 and Cotijuba (Pará) in 2022.
  • Checks are getting heavier. The Navy reported more than 133,000 vessel boardings and 710 seizures in 2025, but Congress is still debating making life jackets compulsory, not just carried.
1,289Boating deaths in 10 years to 2017 (Ministry of Health)
898Sinkings recorded by the Navy, 2016
133,000+Vessels boarded by the Navy, 2025
243Scalping cases, eastern Amazon, 2000–2016

What the numbers show

Brazil has no single, easy-to-find yearly death count for boat accidents. The clearest national figure came in August 2017, when Agência Brasil cited Ministry of Health data showing 1,289 deaths in the previous ten years. The North accounted for 708 of them, about 55%: 421 in Amazonas and 186 in Pará. The Southeast had 185. Navy figures in the same report showed 998 sinkings in 2015 and 898 in 2016, while the fleet kept growing, from 832,717 registered vessels in 2015 to 877,692 by June 2017 (Agência Brasil). By early October 2017, the Senate News Agency counted 125 sinkings on rivers and the coast that year, with 70 dead and missing (Senate News Agency).

Inspections give a better sense of the trend. In summer 2021/22 the Navy boarded more than 83,600 vessels, issued 4,373 notices and seized 716 boats. It recorded 134 accidents, down from 157 the summer before (Agência Brasil). In 2025 it reported more than 133,000 boardings, 7,336 notices and 710 seizures nationwide (Gazeta Náutica, citing the Navy). Scalping, where long hair is caught on an uncovered engine shaft, is a hazard found mainly in the Amazon. The eastern Amazon port authority recorded 243 cases between 2000 and 2016, falling to 10 in 2015 and 6 in 2016 (Agência Brasil), and 7 in 2022, all in Pará and Amapá (Pará Fire Brigade).

What is driving it

In the Amazon, rivers are the road. An Antaq study found about 9 million people use regular river transport in the region, and only 4 of Pará’s 64 ports got a good rating (Chamber News Agency). Many of the deadliest sinkings involved old wooden boats, overloading, bad weather and companies running routes without authorisation. The boat that sank off Cotijuba in 2022 was running irregularly and had picked up passengers at unauthorised docks. It killed 18 people (Agência Brasil). In 2008 Antaq admitted that operators did not even keep passenger lists (Chamber News Agency), and a bill to require them was still going through committees in 2024 (Chamber News Agency).

The second pattern is short trips on small boats near cities, often for leisure and often with no life jackets worn. These include the Guanabara Bay trawler in 2023 (Agência Brasil) and the Gostosão FF in Bahia in 2024, a recreational boat that was illegally carrying passengers. Eight people died (Agência Brasil). Navy rules require life jackets to be on board, not worn. Bills to make wearing them compulsory have been filed again and again since 2008 (2008, 2025).

Recent cases

  • 27 August 2026: The Navy launched Operation Navegue Seguro 2026. It reported more than 133,000 vessel boardings and 710 seizures in 2025 (Gazeta Náutica).
  • 21 February 2026: A boat with 15 people aboard hit a pier on the Grande River near Rifaina, São Paulo state. Six people died, and the driver had no licence (Xinhua).
  • 13 February 2026: The fast launch Lima de Abreu XV sank at the Meeting of the Waters near Manaus. Three people were confirmed dead and five were still missing, while 71 were rescued (Agência Brasil).

Press releases and official reports, 2023–2026

Up to five key releases a year for the last four years, newest first. Most come from federal ministries and agencies such as the Ministry of Health, INPE, the Federal Highway Police, CENIPA and the Central Bank, from Agência Brasil, the public news agency, and from the Senate and Chamber news services and state governments; a few news reports are included where they are the clearest public record of an event. Headlines are our English translations of the Portuguese originals. Releases from 2007–2022 are in the expandable list after 2023.

2026

2025

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2023

View 20 years of major Brazilian maritime and boat safety press releases (2007–2026)55 more from 2007–2022, up to five a year, newest first

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2015

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2008

Many years list fewer than five items, and some have none yet. Older federal releases and the 2007–2013 Agência Brasil archive are hard to reach at their original addresses, and we only list items we could open and check. We are still adding to these lists. Where a page shows no date, the date comes from the release address or the publisher’s own index.

Photo list

Passengers at the São Joaquim ferry terminal in Salvador, Bahia
File photo: the São Joaquim ferry terminal in Salvador, Bahia, on the crossing to Itaparica Island. Photo: Carol Garcia/Secom Bahia via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
Small motorboats on a wide river near Porto Velho, Rondônia
File photo: small boats on the Madeira River near Porto Velho, Rondônia. Photo: Marcela Bonfim/Amazônia Real via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Related on ROR Labs

How this page is built. Figures come from the official statistical releases linked above; where agencies publish provisional numbers we say so, because they are revised. Brazil’s national death data come from the Ministry of Health mortality system (SIM/DATASUS) and are usually final about two years later, and some topics, such as fires, have no single national count, so we say which year and source each figure covers. Money is given in reais (R$). Headlines and quotes are our translations from Portuguese. Photos are public-domain or Creative Commons images credited in each caption; file photos are illustrative and are not from the events described unless the caption says so. This page tracks trends and is not personal safety, medical, legal or financial advice.