The municipality of Albufeira is once again the national champion in golden quality beaches (22 bathing areas), followed by Vila Nova de Gaia (18 bathing areas), Almada (16), Torres Vedras and Vila do Bispo (12). The beach of D. Ana, in Lagos, lost this award given by Quercus, due to the fact that a «landscape attack» was committed there, with the works promoted by the APA last year.
As has been the custom in previous seasons, Quercus has once again attributed the classification of “Golden Quality Beaches” to the bathing areas of the country whose bathing waters show the best results in terms of quality.
This year, 382 beaches were distinguished with “Gold Quality”, 338 coastal bathing areas, 36 inland and 8 transitional.
Quercus identifies, according to the criteria established by the Association itself, the bathing waters in Portugal classified as having "Gold Quality", based on official public information, provided by the Portuguese Environment Agency (SNIRH).
Thus, Quercus identified, in 2016, 382 beaches with “Gold Quality” in Portugal – 68 more than in the previous year.
Of this total, 321 beaches are located in mainland Portugal, 41 in the Autonomous Region of the Azores and 20 in the Autonomous Region of Madeira. This year there are 57 more coastal beaches, 10 inland, and 3 transitional, receiving this distinction.
Compared to 2015, two river beaches and three coastal ones lose their award. The association highlights the cases of the beaches of D. Ana, in Lagos, and Leirosa, in Figueira da Foz, since from this year on, «the existence of possible environmental attacks or landscapes on the beaches'.
In the Algarve, in addition to the record holders Albufeira (22 beaches) and Vila do Bispo (12), 10 bathing areas on the coast of the municipality of Loulé, eight in Aljezur, seven in Lagoa and Portimão were also qualified as “golden beaches”, five in Vila Real de Santo António, four in Lagos, Faro and Silves, and three in Castro Marim, Olhão and Tavira.
In order to be classified as a beach with “Gold Quality”, the bathing water of the beaches must comply with the following critérios:
· Excellent water quality in the last five bathing seasons from 2011 to 2015;
· All analyzes carried out, without exception, in the last bathing season (2015) must have presented better results than the values defined for the 95th percentile of Annex I of the Bathing Water Directive; that is, for coastal and transitional waters, all analyzes must present values less than 100 cfu/100ml for intestinal Enterococci and less than 250 cfu/100ml for Escherichia coli, and for inland waters 200 cfu/100ml and 500 cfu/100ml, respectively.
This assessment carried out by Quercus is more limited compared to the multiple criteria for awarding the Blue Flag, as it is based only on the quality of the water on the beaches, although it is more demanding in this specific aspect, in addition to including all bathing waters, not involving any application process.
Quercus' objective is to «highlight the beaches that, over several years (five), systematically present bathing water of excellent quality (taking into account the classification of the legislation in force), and which, in this sense, offer a greater reliability with regard to the quality of your water'.
Out of this list are bathing waters whose classification covers less than five years and those whose pollution problems have only recently been solved or where there has been in the last bathing season any analysis of lower quality than the minimum established by Quercus .
This year, for the first time, the “Gold Quality” flag will be officially hoisted on Formosa beach, on the island of Santa Maria, Azores, on June 13th.
Golden Beaches in Coastal Waters in the Algarve
ALBUFEIRA
GERMAN
ARRIFS
AVEIROS
TEE MATCHES
CASTLE
RABBIT
EVARISTO
ALFAMAR FALL
EAST WALLET
WEST WALLET
MANUEL LOURENÇO
MARIA LUISA
GOLD
EAST OLD
PENCO
FISHERMEN
LOW ROCK
LOW ROCK
LOW-WEST ROCK
S. RAFAEL
SNACKS
SAINT EULALIA
ALJEZUR
LOVED
MMOREIRA-MAR
ARRIFANA
BORDER
CLERGY MOUNT
DECICE-SEA
MEN'S VALLEY
FIGUEIRAS VALLEY
CASTRO MARIM
ALAGOA-HEIGHT
HEAD
GREEN BEACH
FARO
breech-sea
BARRET
FARO-SEA
ISLAND OF FAROL-MAR
LAGOON
BENAGIL
CANERS
CARVALHO
ROUND DIT
PAINTED
LADY OF THE ROCK
OLIVE VALLEY
LAGOS
POTATO
LIGHT
HALF BEACH
PORT OF MÓS
LOULE
ALMARG
ANCHOR
STRONG NEW
BEARING CROWN
WEST HAWN
OLD LOULÉ
FOURTH
QUINTA DO LAGO
VALLEY OF WOLF
VILLAGE
EYE
ARMONA-MAR
ARMONARIA
FUSETTA-MAR
PORTIMÃO
DAWN
SUNSET
BARRANCO DAS CANA
CARIANS
PRAINHA
ROCHA
VAU
SILVES
PEAR FRAME
BOATS / REARING PEAR FRAME
BEACH BEACH
BEACH BEACH
TAVIRA
CABANAS-SEA
TAVIRA-MAR ISLAND
NARROW EARTH
BISHOP'S VILLAGE
ALMADENA-OLD HUTS
MOUTH OF THE RIVER
BURGAU
CASTLEJO
ROPE
FURNAS
INGRINE
sledgehammer
MARTINAL
SALEMA
TUNEL
ZAVIAL
VILA REAL DE SANTO ANTÓNIO
FACTORY-SEA
BURBOT
ROUTE BLANKET
MONTE GORDO
SAINT ANTHONY
Comments