Beach cleanups and ocean conservation in Portugal

Surfers see the coast on its worst days: the tide line of bottle caps after a storm, the ghost net wrapped round a reef, the cotton buds in the shorebreak. A lot of people on this coast do something about it, and joining them is one of the easiest ways to put something back. Nothing here is a paid listing and wavesdays handles no money; every group takes volunteers and donations directly.

Coast-wide groups

Brigada do Mar has run what it calls the biggest beach cleanup in the world since 2009: for about two weeks each May, hundreds of volunteers walk the roughly 45 kilometres of wild beach between Melides and the Troia peninsula, hauling out the heavy debris a normal cleanup leaves behind. Sign up for a day or the whole stretch via instagram.com/brigadadomar, where the campaign dates go up.

Movimento ALP (Ajude a Limpar a Praia) runs volunteer cleans and school programmes year round across the country and has removed something like nineteen tonnes of waste. Dates and meeting points are on movimentoalp.pt and its social channels.

APLM, the Portuguese Marine Litter Association, is the research and coordination side: citizen-science monitoring, the Portuguese Partnership for Marine Litter, and the data that tells everyone else where the problem is worst. aplixomarinho.org.

Sciaena works further upstream, on ocean policy, marine protected areas and fishing rules. It is not a turn-up-with-gloves group; it is where to send money if you want the structural work done. sciaena.org.

Close to the surf

Surfrider Foundation Ericeira is the local chapter of the European ocean NGO, running beach cleans, water-quality sampling and school sessions around Ericeira and taking part in the Europe-wide Ocean Initiatives each spring. surfriderericeira.org.

The Ericeira World Surfing Reserve, the body that looks after the reserve's seven kilometres and eight waves, organises stewardship and clean-up days with local schools and clubs.

In Peniche, Ocean Patrol (ocean-patrol.org) is the organisation most active locally: since 2021 it has run cleanups the length of the peninsula alongside research, campaigns and school programmes, and posts its next dates on its site and social channels. The municipality also runs coastal cleanups through the year, with a bigger push around International Coastal Cleanup Day each September, and several surf schools organise their own beach mornings.

How to join

Turn up. Most cleans meet at a car park or a beach bar for a couple of hours on a weekend morning, provide bags and gloves or ask you to bring your own, and finish with coffee. They suit families and they suit a flat day when there is no surf anyway. Check the group's Instagram for the next date, because they move with the weather.

Giving instead

Every group above takes donations on its own site. A small monthly amount to one organiser goes further than a one-off, and the advocacy groups (Sciaena, APLM) turn money into policy that a Saturday cleanup cannot.

See also

The Ericeira World Surfing Reserve guide, for how reserve status protects that stretch, and the International Ocean Film Tour screenings, which tour Portugal each autumn with Sea Shepherd, Brigada do Mar and Surfrider among the partners.