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In Portugal, while it is prohibited without a permit which is very difficult to get, metal detecting is most common in the region of Algarve. Algarve is the southernmost region in Portugal, known for its golf resorts and Atlantic beaches.
The above from a google search.
I posted at same time as you - ALgarve is where i almost got arrested - I hit one spot and got away with it (not knowing it was illegal)
i was in the water and kept under so no one knew what i was doing went at sunrise next day and a restaraunt owner was up and came over
yelling at me - my GF was in the car napping - and she said he owns the resteraunt and cant get a permit so I cant detect there either
and he was going to call the police - My GF asked an old friend of hers that had a government job and she asked her boss if they knew
anything about this "law" - they said no - her Gf then asked a neighbor of hers that was a city/town police officer if he knew of the "law"
he said he was never told and never had a problem with guys detecting. SO I asked her GF if she could tell of a good beach - she did
and thats where some high ranking water police showed up with 2 shore patrolmen and grabbed me from the water
We traveled up north after that and our rental car was broken into - luckily i took all my equipment to our room but next morning
we had to go down to that towns local police dept. and file a report - when we did - the officer we sat down with ...luckily had
come to USA to do some schooling and could speak English pretty good - so I was able to talk to him with out my GF translating
I told him what happened and asked him if it was illegal to detect their beaches - he said, "no...no problem" and I got happy
...for about a minute. His sergeant was around the corner and was not as well versed in English but heard part of our conversation.
He came over and asked him exactly what we were talking about and he said it was illegal with out a permit and as far as he
knew they had not issued any permits in their district yet but this was some yrs ago.
When i was down in the Algarve - i did run into another treasure hunter that was a local and yes - he had a permit
but he told me he only was permited to hit the beach he was on and 2 other small ones - he had permit #5... I think.
From where we were - we could see a huge beach in the distance - was one of the biggest down south - I asked him
about it and he said the guy with permit #1 was only allowed to hit there and if he got caught ever hitting - he would lose his
I thought that was bull - only one guy allowed per beach
I did get one gold in little time i hunted - unless they change rules/laws - I'll never go back