Schedules: 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. (closed from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.)
ELA / Fishery Museum

Fishery Museum

Praia da Aguda is known for it’s “artisanal” fishery, based on methods handed down from generation to generation. Around 1870, fishermen from two villages nearby, Afurada and Espinho, settled here to build the first wooden shelters and to fish mainly swim-crabs «pilado» (Polybius henslowi), which they sold to the local farmers for fertilisation. The fields became more productive, and the fishery developed with increasing demand.

The exhibits of the Fishery Museum highlight the equipment and traditional arts of small-scale fishery used throughout the ages and transmitted from generation to generation, the memories of the daily work and life of its people. Exposing the local items together with fishing equipment and utensils of other countries from various periods further demonstrates the skilfulness of ancient technologies. All over the world, even in the most isolated places, the necessity to acquire food inspired mankind to invent and construct similar devices and skills for fishing. These similarities become evident in a collection of unique items, gathered in five continents over the past 40 years by Mike Weber who continued to enrich the exhibits with objects acquired by the Littoral Station of Aguda:

  • Hooks, lures and other artificial baits for the fishing of the most varied species of fish.
  • Harpoons, fishing spears and arrows for capturing octopus, eel, conger eel, lamprey, carp, swordfish, halibut, shark, and marine mammals.
  • Fishing traps, fyke-nets, baskets, pots, dip nets and other nets for the capture of crustaceans, molluscs and all kinds of fish.
  • Fishing rods and poles, reels and other antique sports fishing equipment, fishing boat models, fishing figures, shells, corals and rare maritime curiosities.
  • The 1st floor houses two permanent exhibits, the “Pesculturas”, a collection of clay sculptures on fishing themes by Mike Weber, and the “Pesfiguras”, a collection of 170 figures related to fishing, from 40 countries. There is also a temporary exhibit, the “Achados do Mar”, a collection of objects found by the sea by Assunção Santos, and a collection of preserved crustacean shells and other marine objects by Jaime Prata.