The head of Portugal’s lifeguards association, Alexandre Tadeia, says a system for year-round beach watching by trained lifeguards needs to be put in place to reduce the number of deaths in the off-season - and the beach concession holders association chief, João Correia, agrees.
On the eve of the official start to the bathing season, on Thursday June 15th, the remaining 30% of Portuguese beaches that do not yet have coverage will have lifeguards as from tomorrow morning.
The two officials say they are deeply saddened by the disappearances and deaths by drowning at beach areas where the season had yet to start, with four drownings over the early May public holiday and four deaths last weekend (Espinho beach, where two young men disappeared, and at the Vouga river in Águeda, where two children died) casting a long shadow over 'sun and sand' tourism.
João Correia said the solution for safety is not to extend the bathing season, but to adopt a new model that allows lifeguard teams to be available when weather forecasts are for sun and people are predicted to head for the beach.
"If it's hot in March, like this year, the beaches are full, so there has to be a rescue team prepared year-round to be there whenever it's needed," said Correia.
The president of the Portuguese Federation of Beach Concessionaires said that the Matosinhos council’s model was the best he had seen and that other councils should follow its example.
"The council in Matosinhos, Oporto, has a team of lifeguards available to monitor the beaches all year round, whenever hot weather is predicted and crowds are bound to hit the beaches. This council should be used as an example," explained João Correia.
There may be a shortage of lifeguards at the start of the 2017 season with Correia saying there are many still in training who will start work later on in the summer after their exams, but generally "everything is ready" for another safe bathing season.
Alexandre Tadeia, the head of the lifeguards service, said that “85% of drownings could be prevented if there was lifeguard cover available during the winter, not just during the bathing season," adding that records show that the current ‘on season-off season’ model does not provide the necessary safety.
It is up to the municipal councils to define the bathing season on each beach in their area between May 1st and October 15th each year, which is why the calendar is increasingly variable from beach to beach, even within the same council area.
In May this year, the head of the regional tourism board, Desidério Silva, said he wants the Algarve’s beaches monitored by lifeguards from the start of Spring, not just from the start of the official summer season, calling for "greater flexibility and more responsibility on the part of local authorities," which pay for the lifeguard service.
