English: This beautiful lagoon sits on the southeastern coast of Brazil, in the state of Rio Grande Do Sul. The name, Lagoa dos Patos translates to the “the Duck Lagoon”. It is said that the name comes from Jesuit settlers who, in the 16th century, petitioned the King of Spain to grant them title to the waterway so that they could breed ducks. The in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, translates to "the Duck Lagoon". While the King initially consented, when he realized it was one of the largest lagoonal systems in the world, he recanted and kept the lagoon as Spanish property.

The Lagoa dos Patos is an unusual type of lagoon called a “choked lagoon”, which means it has only a narrow channel to the ocean. This restricts tidal action inside the lagoon as well as minimizes the mixing of the fresh water delivered by inland rivers with the saline water of the nearby Atlantic Ocean. In the south, a narrow inlet is bounded by stable jetties, which creates a microtidal estuary with saline water, while further north the waters are nearly fresh or only slightly saline.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this true-color image of the Lagoa dos Patos on April 29, 2023.