Through the initiation of a 3-years PhD thesis of a Cameroonian student (Joël Kamdoum, co-directed by Sophie Bertrand and Sebastien Thorin; funded by a French public-private partnership Cifre grant between IRD and Creocean, and hosted at UFRPE), this secondment was used for information and data gathering on North-Eastern Brazil, from regional historical databases and IRD Abraços at-sea-surveys.