The Acari River is located in
Rio de Janeiro state
Rio de Janeiro () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil. It has the second largest economy of Brazil, with the largest being that of the state of São Paulo. The state, which has 8.2% of the Brazilian population, is responsible for 9.2% of ...
in southeastern
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. It is one of the major watercourses of the city of
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
.
The name is of
Guarani origin, a corruption of ''aqûâ-ára-i'', meaning "enduring current". It is not related to the
Loricariidae
The Loricariidae is the largest family of catfish (order Siluriformes), with 92 genera and just over 680 species. Loricariids originate from freshwater habitats of Costa Rica, Panama, and tropical and subtropical South America. These fish are not ...
''Acari'' fish.
Course
The Acari River rises in the Serra do Gericinó with its mouth on the
Rio Meriti which separates the city of Rio from
Duque de Caxias. The Acari flows through the city from the extreme west to the ''zona norte''.
It is navigable but as it traverses the territories of three separate criminal gangs it has ceased to be used as a waterway.
Ecology
The river is not silted up and has a very large flow of water with
riparian
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks a ...
vegetation in some areas. It was one of the last of the rivers of Rio to suffer from
macrobiological death.
Alligator
An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...
s can still be found in the river, but there are no longer any
freshwater shrimp present. There is a popular wish for the river to be cleaned up and to become a major source of local income by offering recreation, fishing and transportation.
See also
*
Maracanã River in Rio de Janeiro city.
*
List of rivers of Rio de Janeiro state
References
Brazilian Ministry of Transport
Rivers of Rio de Janeiro (state)
Geography of Rio de Janeiro (city)
{{RiodeJaneiro-river-stub