Chasse sous-marine à Porto Covo — vent, houle, visibilité, marées et caméras en direct

• Robalo (bar/loup)min 36 cm
  <4 m · fin du jusant → début du flot · aube/crépuscule
  Cible principale. Fuit la lumière — choisis les créneaux tôt/au crépuscule.
• Sargo (sar commun)min 17 cm
  1–5 m · flot (monte sur le récif avec le ressac) · aube
  Cible dominante du récif. La visibilité compte plus que l'heure de la journée.
• Dourada (dorade royale)min 19 cm
  1–4 m · flot sur sable/herbier · aube
  Très farouche — affût statique.
• Salemamin 18 cm
  0–2 m · — · journée
  Cible la plus facile à 0–6 m. ⚠️ NE PAS manger la tête/les viscères (ichtyosarcotoxisme).
• Tainha (mulet)min 20 cm
  0–2 m · — · —
  Extrêmement méfiante ; l'eau trouble la GÊNE. Opportuniste, dans les criques calmes.
• Corvina (maigre)min 42 cm
  1–6 m (marginal) · — · crépuscule
  Près de l'embouchure du Tage, PAS sur les rochers de Guincho. Adultes surtout à 5–75 m. ⚠️ FERMÉ 1–30 juin (defeso).
• Santola (araignée de mer)min 12 cm
  1–10 m · basse mer (plateau du récif découvert) · matinée calme (≤force 2)
  Carapace ≥12 cm. Pic juil.–août. FERMÉ 15.02–15.06. Limite 2 kg/jour.

• ✓Spearfishing licence required (16+), daily/monthly/annual (~€25/yr). Speargun = licence required.
• ✓Hand-gathering shellfish with NO gear — no licence; but if a speargun is on the dive, a spearfishing licence is required.
• ✓Night prohibited: spearfishing only in daylight (sunset→sunrise not allowed). Artificial light as a means of finding/attracting fish is banned — a torch for safety only.
• ✓Signalling buoy MANDATORY for spearfishing: buoy/float with an «Alfa» flag (red/orange/yellow, ≥8 L), no more than 30 m from the diver.
• ✓Spearfishing daily limit: fish + cephalopods — 15 kg (excluding the largest specimen). General rod-and-line recreational fishing — 10 kg.
• ✓Invertebrates (including spider crab) — 2 kg/day total.
• ✓Spider crab: min. carapace 12 cm; defeso (closed season) 15.02–15.06 — applies to recreational gathering too.
• ✓Min. sizes: robalo 36 cm, sargo 17 cm, dourada 19 cm, choupa 23 cm, corvina 42 cm; octopus 750 g.
• ✓Grouper — fully protected, may not be taken.

• ⛔ Grouper (Epinephelus) — fully protected, capture PROHIBITED.
• ⛔ Seahorses (Hippocampus) — protected.

Rules change. Before heading out, check with DGRM / ICNF / Capitania and the defeso table.

• Sets: watch the wave trains ≥15 min before entering; Hmax ≈ 2×Hs, the wash can run 50 m past the foam line. A lull >10 min with period >12 s = a big set «overdue», do NOT enter; enter right after a full set passes and re-check at minute 30.
• Exit FIRST: find your exit AND a backup before entering. At Cabo Raso/Arriba a 0.5 m rise in swell makes a boulder exit impossible — getting pinned/unable to climb out is the main killer here.
• Headland rip: at Cabo Raso there is a permanent topographic rip regardless of the model — locate it, enter/exit on the windward side, never swim against it.
• Cold: wetsuit per the SST chip; the first shiver = a metabolic surge and a drop in breath-hold → get out at the first steady shiver. Cap the session at 45–60 min below 15 °C.
• Solo discipline: buoy up; tell someone the spot and exit time; conservative breath-hold (never push it in cold/murky/surfy water); visibility <3 m — don't enter.
• Nortada (Jun–Sep): wind builds from midday — be out of the water by ~11:00; the chop builds — get out.
• UV 11:00–15:00 (UVI ≥6): sunscreen and cover up on the surface interval.
• Solo is a fundamental risk (hypoxic blackout with no buddy). Any doubt = No-go.