Freediving with a thousand fishes in Lido Islet

The photo above was taken at lunch time, it was a perfect set with Nau Santa Maria* just passing by Lido islet.

But i only went freediving after work arround 7 p.m. The weather was great and there were more people in the Gorgulho beach than the last time i' been there.

I enter the sea through the "calhau"** of course and head up to Lido islet.

In the way i saw various fishes, from brown-frogfishes (Sphoeroides marmoratus), to parrotfishes (Sparisoma cretense), Atlantic-lizardfishes (Synodus saurus), greenfishes (Thalassoma pavo), Madeira-rockfishes (Scorpaena maderensis), starfishes
(Marthasterias glacialis) and of course "castanhetas-pretas" (Abudefduf luridus).

I can't forget i had the pleasant company of two small "guelly jacks" (Pseudocaranx dentex) until i get the sand zone, where i did my first dive arround 9m to the bottom.

After that the bottom was a desert, so i decided to swim backwards to the islet. As i got closer i turned arround and looked down, i could already see the rock formation coming from the sand.

I was a bit disappointed when i arrived at Lido islet, cause there wasn't so many fishes as i would expected. So i decided to make a counterclock wise tour arround the islet.

Before the first dive i already spotted, from surface, a trumpetfish (Fistularia petimba) hidding away below a platform rock. So i went down and made a visit to him, but this guys are very shy and as soon as he saw me, he get away. I didn't follow him.

I did some more dives until i made half the way and saw a lot of "white sea breams" (Diplodus sargus) rushing behind the bottom rocks going i don't know where.

Now i was going to enter the darkzone, since the sun was covered by Lido Islet rock, and I didn't expected, but this were amazing dives with a shoal of more than a thousand sardines (Sardina pilchardus).

Back to the starting point in the islet, i saw what i was expecting to see from the beginning, the shoal of hundreds of "dobradas" (Oblada melanura) like the last time i've been there.

Coming back to land i still had the opportunity to play with a "choco" (Sepia officinalis).

* Nau Santa Maria - a funcional replica of the ship that Colombo used to discover the american continent in 1492.
** calhau - small round stones in a beach

About Lido Islet and Funchal Marine Eco-Park

Lido islet is a rock formation coming out from a depth of 15m in the center of a marine eco-park called "Eco-Parque Marinho do Funchal", which pretends to be a sea protected area at south of Funchal city.

Lido islet is arround 130m to 200m from shore and accessible through swimming from Lido beach or Gorgulho beach, respectively.

Arround the islet and underwater you can find a lot of fish, like 1 or 2 trumpetfish (Fistularia petimba), a group of "charuteiros" (Seriola lalandi), hundreds of "dobradas" (Oblada melanura) or thousands of sardines (Sardina pilchardus). With luck you can find a eagle-ray (Myliobatis aquila) passing by.

The bottom arround Lido islet is made of black sand and usually visible from surface.

Special links:

• http://www.frentemarfunchal.com/