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Portuguese beach condition signal flags

Last modified: 2006-08-19 by antonio martins
Keywords: beach |
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Beach security signal flags

The portuguese system in beach security is a “traffic light” system where the flags’ significance is as follows:
Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005

Green flag

green flag
image by Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005

You can bath and swim, provided you follow the security rules as set and made public annually by the I.S.N. This flag is hoisted with fair sea conditions.
Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005

Yellow flag

yellow flag
image by Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005

You can bath but you cannot swim. This flag is hoisted when there are strong currents due to the danger of people being dragged away by the sea.
Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005

Red flag

red flag
image by Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005

You cannot bath, i.e., you cannot enter the water. This flag is hoisted when there are exceptionally strong currents, in the presence of big waves, when sharks are detected in the area (in the archipelagos, most of all — sharks are very rare in mainland Portugal), when hydrocarbons are spilled or toxins are found in the water, when explosives are detected in the sand or in nearby waters, during military exercises with amphibious landings, when the maritime authorities so command, and so on. From my experience, of all these cases, the most common situation of red flag are big waves.
Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005

Checquy flag

Checquy flag
image by Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005

The watchman is temporarily absent from the beach. Usually this flag gets up on the mast during lunch hours. Regarding the precise arrangement of squares Jan mentions, weather it’s blue and white or white and blue it’s pretty much irrelevant (i.e.: the flag cannot be hoisted upside down) — what matters is the pattern.
Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005,


Instituto de Socorros a Náufragos
sea safety guard

Checquy flag
image by Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005

It is red with a white descending diagonal (starting from the top hoist) bearing the organization’s initials, plus dots, also in red. More info in this page.
Jan Mertens, 27 Jun 2005

It is one of the best-known flags in Portugal, a red and white diagonal triband, based on the “diver down” flag, with the institute’s initials, in red, in the white band. The I.S.N. (Instituto de Socorro a Náufragos, literally tranlatable as «Institute for Help to Castaways») is an organism that depends from the Portuguese Navy, and whose purpose is to maintain beach and maritime security. It’s the I.S.N. who coordinates rescue operations in high sea and it’s the institute that provides beach surveillance and security. It has a site which is subsite to the Navy’s website, and includes plenty of information, although only in portuguese.
Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005

coat of arms

I.S.N. has a coat of arms (shown in this page).
Jorge Candeias, 28 Jun 2005


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