This paper shows that the location of the shoreface bank reefs along the northeastern and eastern coasts of Brazil, in a first order approximation, seem to be controlled by the deficit of sediment in the coastal system. The sediment transport pattern defined by a numerical modeling of wave refraction diagrams, representing circa 2000 km of the northeastern and eastern coasts of Brazil, permitted the regional-scale reproduction of several drift cells of net longshore sediment transport. Those drift cells can reasonably explain the coastal sections that present sediment surplus or sediment deficit, which correspond, respectively, to regions where there is deposition and erosion or little/no deposition of sand. The sediment deficit allows the exposure and maintenance of rocky substrates to be free of sediment, a favorable condition for the fixation and development of coral larvae.