NT, ZAP //
A 50-year-old man, a 40-year-old man and a 54-year-old man lost their lives at the end of the day this Friday, at Cais dos Banhos, Cabo do Mundo and Ourigo. Bathing season starts this Saturday on 121 beaches in the North.
The end of the day this Friday proved fatal for three bathers in Porto, just hours before the start of the summer season.
At 7:54 pm, a 50-year-old man jumped into the Douro River, from Bath Pierin the historic area of Ribeira do Porto. It went wrong: he hit his head on some rocks and didn’t come back to the surface, according to sources.
Shortly afterwards, the body was located by the Douro Maritime Police and removed from the water, with resuscitation maneuvers not being successful. INEM declared the death.
A quarter of an hour later, the same outcome, under different circumstances, just 20 minutes away. A man in his 40s died on Friday after falling into a rocky area in Ourigo beachin Porto, a source from the Douro Captaincy told Lusa.
The deputy commander of the Captaincy of Douro, Pedro Cervaens, told Lusa that the alert for the accident was given by the 20:10for a man falling into the rocky area when he was out walking.
The victim was treated at the scene first by members of the public and then by emergency teams, but he ended up succumbing to his injuries.
Members of the Maritime Police, Porto Firefighters and INEM were present at the scene.
Just over an hour and a half later, a 54-year-old man also died, after taking a bath in the Cape do Mundo beachin Matosinhos, in the district of Porto, a source from the National Maritime Authority (AMN) told Lusa.
The alert for the disappearance at sea was given at 22:08, and members of the local command of the Maritime Police and the Leixões lifeguard station were called to carry out searches.
The victim was found by fishermen on foot, who saw the body next to the rocks at the tide line, according to an AMN source. Death was declared at the scene by the INEM team, he added.
Bathing season starts this Saturday
The bathing season starts on Saturday on 121 beaches in the North and the blue flag is present on 83 beaches, one less than in 2025, with 73 coastal beaches and 10 river beaches.
Matosinhos and Vila Nova de Gaia, in the district of Porto, both with 19 blue flags, are the municipalities that will concentrate the highest number of awards in 2026, according to the Blue Flag Association for Environment and Education (ABAAE).
Viana do Castelo follows, with 13 award-winning locations, two more than in 2025, while Póvoa de Varzim maintains eight and Vila do Conde five.
Porto has four award-winning beaches, Caminha has three coastal areas and a river beach and Espinho has three blue flags, according to information provided by ABAAE on the website.
The list of blue flag river beaches also includes two locations in Braga (Adaúfe and Ponte do Bico), one in Fafe and one in Vila Verde (Braga district), four in Macedo de Cavaleiros (Bragança district) and one in Freixo de Espada à Cinta (Bragança).
As for bathing waters identified in the North, there will be 121 in 2026, according to the Government decree published in the Diário da República on April 30th.
This document defines the duration of the bathing season every year, which this year, in the North, is from June 13th to September 13th.
The exception goes to the beaches of Espinho (district of Aveiro), where the summer season started on June 1st, ending on September 20th, and to Pedras Ruivas, in the municipality of Caminha (Viana do Castelo), which starts on June 27th.
In 2025, according to calculations made by Lusa, the summer season began on June 14 on 127 beaches in the North, with the blue flag present on 84 beaches: 75 in coastal areas and nine river beaches, with six departures from the award to be scheduled in relation to 2024.
Portugal this year has 438 Blue Flag beaches, marinas and boats, six fewer than in 2024, distributed across 100 municipalities, with the municipality of Sertã standing out, which applied for the first time, announced the Blue Flag Association on April 30th.
According to the president of the European Blue Flag Association this year, across the country, blue flags will be raised on 396 beaches – 350 coastal and 46 inland.
