The was a ferry which operated on the Amazon River. On Saturday, September 19, 1981, it was making its weekly trip between Santarém and Manaus when it sank in Óbidos harbour. The boat was overcrowded, and it is assumed that over 300 people died in the disaster, with hundreds of bodies and body parts never identified. Of 500 people estimated to have been aboard, at least 178 had survived as reported by the Captain, Elio Palhares, that day. In 2014, British angler

Jeremy Wade Jeremy John Wade (born 23 March 1956) is an English television presenter, an author of books on angling, a freshwater detective, and a biologist. He is known for his television series '' River Monsters'', ''Mighty Rivers'', and ''Dark Waters''. H ...

went to Óbidos to investigate the role that local fish species may have played in the loss of life during this disaster; his findings were documented in the ''

River Monsters ''River Monsters'' is a British and American wildlife documentary television programme produced for Animal Planet by Icon Films of Bristol, United Kingdom. It is hosted by extreme angler and biologist Jeremy Wade, who travels around the g ...

'' episode entitled "Amazon Apocalypse." After investigating numerous possibilities, including

boto Boto is a Portuguese name given to several types of dolphins and river dolphins native to the Amazon and the Orinoco River tributaries. A few botos exist exclusively in fresh water, and these are often considered primitive dolphins. Classificat ...

s (river dolphins),

caiman A caiman (also cayman as a variant spelling) is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within the Alligatoridae family, the other being alligators. Caimans inhabit Mexico, Central and South Ameri ...

s, and

piranha A piranha or piraña (, , or ; or , ) is one of a number of freshwater fish in the family Serrasalmidae, or the subfamily Serrasalminae within the tetra family, Characidae in order Characiformes. These fish inhabit South American rivers, ...

, Wade concluded that the culprits were likely hordes of piraiba and redtail coda rossa catfish, drawn by chum from nearby fish processing operations, probably joined by the black piranha and other small carnivorous fish. He hypothesized that the large redtails and piraiba pulled the struggling victims underwater, where they drowned. One man, soon after the ship had sunk, volunteered to dive down and help explain what went wrong. After a few short minutes, the diver re-emerged and said “There’s definitely something down there, the movement of the water…” He refused to go back down. When the ship was retrieved, there were bodies with chunks of missing flesh, and only the hands seemed to be untouched.

References

Maritime incidents in 1981 Shipwrecks Disasters in Brazil 1981 in Brazil 1981 disasters in Brazil {{disaster-stub