Conquering Challenges

Headquartered in the city of Santos, located on Brazil’s southeast coast, HidroMares - Environmental & Oceanographic Consulting is dedicated to ocean and inland water sciences and their associated technologies. The company started with a challenge: to transform the breadth of knowledge acquired and deepened through academia into a successful environmental and oceanographic consulting firm offering the highest quality services in the marketplace.

HidroMares is a private company, founded in February 2002. A group of oceanographers completing post-doctorate degrees at the University of São Paulo (USP) founded the company with support from university professors. For two years, the company operated from USP’s ‘­business incubator’, consulting principally in the field of physical oceanography. Over the next two years, the company passed through a period of near dormancy, with members focused on other pursuits. But in 2006, the corporate structure and a commitment to growth were renewed and the company opened its office in Santos – a strategic location due to the city’s proximity to coastal pre-salt fields, and the fact that Santos is home to South America’s largest port.

Since then, the company has broadened its scope. Currently, in addition to offering consulting in the areas of oceanography and limnology, the company imports and sells oceanographic equipment from internationally recognised brands. Thus, the company mission is to advise each client to recognise the interaction between its projects and the aquatic environment, and with sound science and our dedication to the environment as our guides, offer solutions that integrate services and equipment of the highest quality.

Currently, the company maintains a lean structure with six employees while accounting, customs clearance and marketing services are outsourced. Dr Adriene F. Pereira is the company CEO and partners Alexandre De Caroli and Gabriel Paschoal are responsible for the management of services and equipment, respectively. We apply the Business Process Management philosophy while always keeping in mind our core values: ethics, teamwork, responsibility and dedication, creativity and innovation. During the first half of 2013, company turnover increased by 396% over the same period last year.

Offering complete equipment and service solutions, HidroMares customers include any organisation, large or small, that interacts with the aquatic environment. To this end, the company provides or has provided consulting services to organisations ranging from major energy companies to smaller industrial firms and private marinas. We have also formed partnerships with engineering and environmental consultancy firms to jointly produce large-scale environmental studies - with HidroMares on board to manage oceanographic and limnology services. In one of these successful joint ventures, HidroMares carried out environmental assessment and mathematical modelling of the hydrodynamic conditions and oil and gravel dispersion in the Colombian Caribbean for the national oil company of Colombia.

Currently, we are investing heavily in developing systems for real-time meteo-oceanographic data and water quality monitoring. “By joining the equipment and the support of the brands we represent in Brazil with the technical and scientific knowledge of our team, we are able to offer the domestic market sophisticated and robust monitoring systems which are designed according to the specific needs of each client”, says Dr Pereira. Recently, the company approved a proposal to supply equipment, install and carry out periodic maintenance of a real-time wave and current monitoring system at the Port of Santos. A similar system will also be installed at the Port of São Sebastião, located about 100km up the coast from Santos.

In partnership with USP professors, HidroMares is investing in the development of technologies such as mathematical numerical modelling. Over the coming years, by assimilating the data collected by our monitoring systems, we will complete the development of a real-time hydrodynamic simulation system for use at Brazil’s principal ports and coastal regions.

The discovery and exploration of pre-salt fields, Brazil’s commitment to urgently investing in improving its port infrastructure, the demand for increased navigational safety in ports due to increasingly large vessels, and the stringent legislation of Brazilian environmental law are just some of the factors that predict a promising future with continued growth and development for HidroMares – we have no doubt that the demand for our services and equipment will continue to grow. Together with this promise of increased demand, our competent team is what really puts us in an excellent position. One of our main new challenges will be increasing our market share in the sales of oceanographic equipment.

The initial goal, set in 2002, was met and challenges conquered head on. New challenges have already been set and we are ready for any other challenges that will surely arise as HidroMares continues to charge ahead.