Ilha dos Meros

Ilha dos Meros sits off Paraty, at the western end of the same bay system as Ilha Grande, and it has become one of the best-known dive spots in the southeast of Brazil largely by being where people start. Scubago's summary is that most divers in the region know the place and many made their first dives on it. The numbers behind that are simple: sheltered, quiet water, a maximum depth of 13 m and no current.

That makes for an unhurried dive. With the deepest point at 13 m there is no meaningful ceiling on bottom time for a recreational profile, and with no current to work against a group stays together without anyone trying — the two things that matter most on a first or second open-water dive. For an experienced diver it reads differently: this is the shallow, quiet end of the area, better used as a check dive or a refresher than as the main event of a boat day.

Nothing is published about what lives on this site specifically, and there are no visibility or water-temperature figures for it on its own, so the bay's own ranges and the day's briefing are what you plan on. What the sources do settle is the profile — 13 m, sheltered, no current — which is the part that matters when you are deciding whether to put a new diver in the water here.