Diving

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“Experience... the magic of Diving in the Algarve!�

Not very well known as a diving location, the Algarve is considered by many as one of the favorite European sites for this practice.

Albufeira, located just in the centre of the Algarve is one of the most popular seaside towns in the region and offers an easy access to all the best diving locations in the Algarve.

In Albufeira, you can have access to a wide range of diving experiences from diving amidst wrecks, caves and artificial reefs, to an abundance of shallow, scenic, and shore dive sites. Its wealth of fascinating marine life, beautiful coastline and year round sunshine combine to make Albufeira a top diving destination.

Highligths

There are available more than 100 different places to dive along the Algarve: walls, grottoes, boats and airplane wrecks, artificial reefs, natural reefs, archaeological sites, deep and night dives.

Highligths - The sea conditions enable diving practically all year round; - The waters, rich in sea life, offer endless topics of interest for observation, investigation or photography; - Huge and fascinating variety of species to observe as they dart across the multicoloured sea bed, covered with exquisite corals, gorgonians, sponges, anemones, cerianthidae, and different types of algae.

- Rich history in shipwrecks, from the time humans first started to navigate the earth, to incidents during the last two World Wars, as well as some caused by storms in the second half of the last century.

Dive Course In Albufeira you will find dive centres, all them with the PADI - Professional Association of Diving Instructors recognition, which is the largest recognised diving organisation in the world, offering you a range of courses from total beginner, wishing to breathe underwater for the first time, to becoming a Pro with Divemaster, Instructor courses and many Speciality courses.

You will find extensive knowledge and experience in the Algarve from the Instructors in the centres.

Personalise your dives to suit your experience level, having beach and boat dives along the Algarve coast. All dives are guided by a PADI professional.

visitalbufeira.pt

turismo de

albufeira

Albufeira promotion bureau

www.visitalbufeira.pt

www.visitalbufeira.pt

“Experience... the magic of Diving in the Algarve!”

Natural Reef Dive

Artificial Reef Dive

Along the Algarve coast are several dispersed rock formations of various sizes and formats. Here several species find shelter and food electing these sites as ideal habitats for their species.

The seabed in this region is rich in aquatic species: fish, shellfish, algae and corals.

These natural reefs are ideal for exploration and a real discovery challenge and identification of the various species.

You can find faults in the ocean with spectacular overhangs and caves usually with a good profusion of life, different styles of walls to follow, some caves, large rocks and overhangs to look under and around.

The artificial reefs consist of many small and big concrete blocks with holes in each side, all together allowing the fish and conger eels to swim between and through. These are great dive sites for photography, easy to navigate, and where can be found many schools of fish and large conger eels.

Highligths

There are sites ideal for beginners or divers wishing for a relaxing shallow dive with a vast variety of life, but also there are other sites that are more suited to an experienced diver.

Some of the reefs have large rocks with interesting holes and areas to look through and see some schools of fish, others are small reef, and not so many divers go there but it´s teeming with life.

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These artificial reefs were placed in 1990 along the Algarve coastal waters, thanks to a project to assess the geoecological effects of these structures in fishing environment.

The reef complex of the Algarve coast is made up of seven artificial reefs, which are each composed of at least 2940 of concrete modules weighing 3 tons and 36 large modules with more than 40 tons each. The reef complex is made of 20,748 modules, continuously occupying a total area of about 43.5 km2.

Currently these reefs are one of the major points of attraction for scuba diving, gathering numerous species of underwater flora and fauna of the region, such us, sea breams, toadfish, blennies, crabs, octopuses, shrimps, conger eels, moray eels, meagres, and other species.

turismo de

albufeira

Albufeira promotion bureau

www.visitalbufeira.pt

www.visitalbufeira.pt

“Experience... the magic of Diving in the Algarve!”

Dive Wrecks

Services available:

The list of wrecks in the Algarve includes the Torvore, the Wilhelm Krag and the Nordsoen, three of the four ships that were sunk by the U35 submarine during the First World War, the B-24 Liberator Bomber that dropped into the waters near Faro, the Empire Warrior, which was sunk by the Luftwaffe off the coast of Vila Real, both during the Second World War, and the Océan, sunk in Salema during the Battle of Lagos between the English and the French, in 1759.

Diving Courses PADI and SSI Snorkeling Baptisms of Diving Diving Trips Sale and Repair of Diving Equipment Commercial Diving Services

Highligths

The Ocean Revival wrecks, presented as the largest single artificial reef structure in the world with the ideal conditions for the proliferation of marine life, combine four different warships, deliberately sunk in the same place: - The Zambeze Ocean Patrol (292 tons, 44 meters long and 8 breadth).

- The Oliveira e Carmo Corvette (1430 tons, 85 meters long e 12 breadth).

- The Almeida Carvalho Hydrographic ship (1320 tons, 64 meters long and 12 breadth).

- The Hermenegildo Capelo Frigate (2.700 tons, 102 meters long and 12 breadth).

Water temperatures Diving in The Algarve is possible all year round; the visibility ranges from 5 to 15 meters and the temperature ranges between 14C and 23C. There are no strong currents to deal with and there is rarely any swell to prohibit entries and exits onto the boat. A 7mm suit is fine for the summer and, whilst many people use the same suit in winter.

The bar chart below shows the average monthly sea temperatures at Albufeira over the year.

Sea life In the Algarve coast you can find a very diverse sea life, like the sea bass, sea bream, trigger fish, spider crabs, crayfish, spiny lobsters, and other different crabs, the octopus, squids, cuttlefish, congers, moray eels, and schools of small and big fish.

Colourful fan corals, the giant and small different nudibranch (sea slugs), varied coloures anemones, blennies, wide range smaller fish, the fish breed and the bright blue damselfish, the wrasse, and different anemone with beautiful colours, including some big tube anemones.

Our Diving Partners

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On the coast of the Algarve, exist at least 150 different nudibranch, and due to this they are among the most common species.

visitalbufeira.pt

turismo de

albufeira

Albufeira promotion bureau

www.visitalbufeira.pt

turismo de

Albufeira promotion bureau

albufeira

Albufeira Promotion Bureau Urbanização Quinta da Bolota Lote 4 - A, Apartado 7084 8200 - 314 Albufeira Algarve | Portugal Tel.: +351 289 580 533 Fax.: +351 289 580 538 www.turismodealbufeira.com