Icaraí beach, Coastal beach in Caucaia, Brazil.

Icaraí is a 9 km straight stretch of white, compacted sand in Caucaia, lined with condominiums, holiday houses and fishing villages. Since the 2000s the sea has swallowed the sand strip and more than two-thirds of the former dual-carriageway Avenida Litorânea. A 330 m granite rockfill spur and, from 2010, an 835 m concrete Bagwall staircase stand between the ocean and the shorefront.

Coastal erosion reached Caucaia in the 1980s, after the Ceará River mouth, and Praia dos Dois Coqueiros was the first beach destroyed by the waves. Between Iparana and Icaraí, ten defence works were built, including nine rockfill groynes and one Bagwall; the largest groyne, at Icaraí, is 330 metres long. In 2010 the municipality added 835 metres of concrete Bagwall steps, which proved ineffective on this open shore.

From the mid-2000s Icaraí hosted one of Ceará's most traditional Carnival celebrations and stages of the Cearense and Northeastern surf circuits. Coastal erosion has since ended tourism at the beach, and residents complain that effective action is lacking; housing and commerce were also hit.

The beach has limited facilities, so bring cash and keep your valuables secure. The best time to visit is early morning or late afternoon when the sun is less intense.

The beach's name is often linked to a popular but unfounded belief: that the Iracema beach landfill caused the erosion here. Researchers point out that the Iracema groin did not accumulate sediment on its east side, and that no sand travels along that stretch, so the claim does not hold.