Museu do Mar, Marine biology museum in Santos, Brazil
The Museu do Mar is a natural history museum in the port city of Santos featuring collections of marine animals and maritime heritage. The displays present preserved specimens, shells, and objects that document the diversity of Brazil's coastal waters.
Marine biologist Luiz Alonso Ferreira, born in Santos in 1946, began collecting seashells in the 1960s and widened the collection through exchanges with Brazilian and foreign collectors and with the help of Japanese-Brazilian fishermen of Ponta da Praia. In 1980 he demolished his family home to build the museum, whose foundation stone was laid on 21 June 1980; it opened on 30 June 1984, funded privately and run by the Sociedade Museu do Mar.
The museum reflects the importance of the ocean to Santos, a city shaped by trade and fishing traditions. Visitors encounter how marine life has influenced the local identity and economy across generations.
The museum is in the Ponta da Praia neighbourhood, an area with a long fishing tradition where founder Luiz Alonso Ferreira built ties with Japanese-Brazilian fishermen and boat owners who helped supply specimens. The building replaced his family home, demolished to make way for the museum after the foundation stone was laid on 21 June 1980.
The museum grew out of a private shell collection that Luiz Alonso Ferreira began in the 1960s; by 1963 the press had noticed it, and in 1969 he sent his first exchange letter abroad, to an Australian shell collectors' club. He demolished his own house in Ponta da Praia to build the museum, whose foundation stone was laid on 21 June 1980.
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