According to Rui Santos Pereira, commander of the Instituto de Socorros a Náufragos, “there were 14 fatal accidents, eight of which on guarded beaches, most of them due to sudden illness (seven) and one due to drowning outside the bathing season, at eight in the morning".
According to Santos Pereira, there was also one death due to sudden illness on an unsupervised beach, two deaths due to drowning on maritime beaches, outside the bathing season, and three in maritime areas (river beaches): two due to sudden illness and one due to drowning.
During the presentation of the balance of the bathing season, which took place at the Academia da Marinha, in Lisbon, the Director General of the Maritime Authority and General Commander of the Maritime Police, Vice Admiral António Coelho Cândido, gave a "positive balance" of the actions, regretting, however, “the recorded deaths”.
"There are some deaths to regret, we can never be satisfied and we can improve the response to security on our beaches", he stressed, considering that the experience of the previous year, during the pandemic, allowed "a more effective preparation".
The 2021 bathing season took place between May 15th and October 31st, although not all beaches were the same.