Spearfishing in Portugal: the rules
Licences, equipment, daylight hours and safety buoys for mainland Portugal.
Spearfishing in mainland Portugal means fishing in the water while holding your breath. You need the right licence, legal equipment and a surface marker—and you must check where and when fishing is allowed. These rules cover recreational sea fishing on the mainland; Madeira and the Azores have separate regimes.
Checked against official guidance on 1 Oct 2026
Who can spearfish: choose the right licence
Choose a DGRM pesca submarina licence, or a pesca lúdica geral licence that includes underwater fishing. A shore-only or boat-angling licence does not cover spearfishing. The underwater licence is available for a day, month or year; check its validity before entering the water. DGRM licence types.
Under-16s are exempt from the fishing-licence requirement when accompanied by a licence holder. This exemption does not remove equipment, location or other fishing restrictions. Foreign visitors can apply through BMar or the official services listed by DGRM.
Allowed equipment: breath-hold fishing only
- No scuba or surface-supplied breathing equipment while spearfishing. A snorkel for breathing at the surface is different. Decree-Law 101/2013 defines underwater fishing as breath-hold fishing.
- Permitted capture tools include a legally defined speargun, shellfish knife, puxeiro and arrelhada/arrilhada. A licence does not authorise every type of fishing tool. Wetsuits, fins and equipment for flotation, protection or carrying catches are allowed.
- Do not carry a loaded, ready-to-fire speargun out of the water or in areas where spearfishing is prohibited. A boat must not carry a speargun and artificial breathing equipment together.
- No bait or groundbait. DGRM allows a torch for safety, with limits: do not use it to attract fish. It does not authorise night spearfishing.
See Portaria 14/2014, Articles 2–5 and DGRM’s equipment FAQ. The 30 m marker rule below is a distance from your marker, not a permitted diving depth.
Buoys, Alpha flags and distances
Your activity must be marked at the surface, with the marker no more than 30 m from you. The regulation specifies either:
- A round or cylindrical red, orange or yellow buoy of at least 8 litres, carrying an Alpha flag; or
- A board or similar marker at least 70 × 40 × 5 cm, with a flagstaff at least 40 cm high, carrying an Alpha flag.
Use the international blue-and-white Alpha flag. A support boat must also display it visibly. See Articles 2, 4 and 7.
Keep at least 20 m from other spearfishers unless you agree otherwise. Boats must keep at least 50 m from spearfishing markers or vessels displaying the Alpha flag. These are separate rules: the boat clearance does not let you swim 50 m away from your marker. DGRM’s distance and boat rules.
Where and when: daylight is not enough
Spearfishing is prohibited from sunset to sunrise. It is also banned in navigation channels at harbour entrances and river mouths, port access and approach channels, narrow port channels and buoyed channels. Bathing concessions, marked sewage outlets, aquaculture sites and ‘Proibido pescar’ signs bring further restrictions. DGRM’s area and time rules.
Protected areas can prohibit underwater fishing even where shore angling is allowed. For example, spearfishing is prohibited in Arrábida, Berlengas and the Sado Estuary Nature Reserve. Check the exact zone on official maps and read your local capitania’s notices.
The Thursday–Monday/public-holiday rule in the four named protected areas concerns boat fishing, not spearfishing. It does not remove any underwater-fishing bans. Use our protected areas and closed seasons guide for the maps, exceptions and current-closure links. A licence never overrides these restrictions.
Check your catch before taking the shot
Identify the species and judge its size before shooting. Do not target undersized fish, prohibited species or fish in an applicable closed season. A minimum-size listing does not mean a species can legally be taken.
Spearfishing has a 15 kg daily catch limit, excluding the single heaviest specimen. DGRM states that using a shared support boat does not multiply that allowance by the number of divers. Stop fishing when the applicable limit is reached; species-specific limits can be lower. See DGRM’s catch FAQ and our minimum sizes and catch limits guide for the full rules and catch-reporting requirements.
Spearfishing catches are exempt from the tail-fin cut required for shore and boat-angling catches. Recreational catches cannot be sold. Decree-Law 101/2013.
Official sources and your final check
Checked on 1 October 2026 against the official legislation, DGRM guidance and the area restrictions printed on a DGRM fishing licence. Before each trip, confirm your licence, marker and flag, daylight hours, local notices and current species closures.