Velas, São Jorge

Marina · Salt water · in The Azores

A recently built marina on the south-western coast of São Jorge, below the cliff face that the town of Velas sits under, on the channel side of the island facing Pico and Faial.

Safety: boat traffic and being seen — can cause serious injury or death. 2 more points apply here.

What each one does, and what reduces it ↓

Particular to this water: A harbour record. Nothing here establishes that fishing is permitted from any part of it, and what may be done on a working quay is the port authority's decision. The water beyond it sits inside an archipelago carrying a dense network of marine protected areas and seamount closures whose boundaries are lines on a chart and are not visible from a boat; establish the current boundaries with the regional fisheries directorate before fishing.

FishingHQ describes what this place is, not whether you may fish it. Access, permits and who to ask.

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at Velas, São Jorge itself. Each one has been documented at a named place on the same ground, and the places are listed with it. Treat this as what the water around here holds rather than as a catch list for this mark.

Also documented at neighbouring places

One or two accounts each, on the ground around here. Enough to know the fish is caught in these waters; not enough to say anything about this place.

From a boat

Atlantic bonito — documented at The Faial–Pico channel
Yellowfin tuna — documented at The Faial–Pico channel
Dusky grouper — documented at The Graciosa north-west coast
Mahi-mahi — documented at The Faial–Pico channel

How people fish it

Practised here: Sea fishing.

The ground and the water

The ground: A recently built marina on the south-western coast of São Jorge, below the cliff face that the town of Velas sits under, on the channel side of the island facing Pico and Faial.
Exposure: On the sheltered southern side of a long, narrow, high island, which is the aspect that makes a marina possible here at all. The northern coast of São Jorge takes the open Atlantic and carries no harbour of this kind.
Depth: Not stated by the authority whose record this rests on, and not guessed. The surrounding water is the deep inter-island channel of the Azorean triangle rather than a shelf.

Getting there

What public sources describe, last checked 2026-08-29. Car parks fill, services change and a path existing is not a path anybody may use — none of this is a guarantee of availability and none of it is permission to be anywhere.

Getting to it: The marina sits at the seaward edge of the town of Velas on the island's southern coast. São Jorge is reached by air or by the inter-island ferries that work the triangle; the marina lies 22 nautical miles from Horta on Faial and 30 from Lajes do Pico.

Where this access information comes from

The marinas of the Azores — the regional record, island by island — Visit Azores (Turismo dos Açores), publishing the marina records of Portos dos Açores, S.A. (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: The regional marina record for Velas on São Jorge: its position on the island, its facilities, and its distance from Horta and Lajes do Pico.States this directlyPassage read and verified

What is there

Public toilets
Toilets, showers and a laundry are listed among the marina's facilities on the regional marina record.
Food or shelter
A bar and a yacht club operate at the marina. Opening is their business rather than the port's.
Harbour facilities
A reception quay, the port authorities on site, technical repairs and dry docking. No berth count, maximum length or depth is stated by the authority, so none is recorded here.

Safety

Boat traffic and being seen — Can cause serious injury or death

Summer small-craft traffic on this coast is heavy and fast, and a swimmer, breath-hold diver or small float is nearly invisible from a planing hull until it is too close to alter course.

What reduces it: Carry a surface marker buoy with a dive flag and keep it directly above the diver, work inside marked zones where they exist, and leave water where traffic is heavy rather than trying to be seen in it.

Boat safety — Can cause serious injury or death

The banks and seamounts that produce the fishing are open-ocean ground far from shelter, sometimes with the nearest alternative harbour on a different island, and Atlantic conditions can deteriorate faster than a small craft can cross that distance.

What reduces it: Treat a seamount trip as offshore passage-making rather than as a fishing outing. Go in a boat and with people equipped for it, set a turn-round decision on the forecast before leaving, and carry the means to call for help from beyond VHF range of land.

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

Swell reaches the islands from any direction with no shelf to dissipate it, so waves at exposed lava platforms are larger and less regular than the wind suggests and arrive in sets rather than steadily.

What reduces it: Check swell rather than wind and check its direction. Watch a platform for a sustained period before committing to it, and never fish a position you could not leave immediately.

Rules and access

FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. The Azores are an autonomous region of Portugal administering their own fisheries, and recreational sea and underwater fishing are licensed regionally. The archipelago also carries an unusually dense network of marine protected areas and seamount closures whose boundaries are not visible from a boat. Measures change. Check the current position with the regional fisheries directorate before going.

Who holds the answer:

The Regional Directorate for Fisheries of the Azores, which licenses recreational sea and underwater fishing across the archipelago.
The regional maritime authority, for protected areas and local measures.
The Regional Directorate for Fisheries of the Azores, for recreational licences and the rules on sizes, species and gear
The managing authorities of the archipelago's marine protected areas and seamount closures, whose boundaries govern what may be done inside them
The regional environment authority, for the crater lakes and the protected landscapes containing them
Charter skippers and dive centres, for current practice and for where the closure boundaries actually run

Nearby fishing

Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.

The Faial–Pico channel — 25–40 km · Sound or strait
Horta, Faial — 25–40 km · Charter departure port

Velas, São Jorge and the publicly documented places around it. Approximate positions, not marks. On a narrow screen the plot is wider than the screen and scrolls sideways inside its frame. Positions are approximate by design — they are capped at about a hundred metres and describe where a named public place is, not where fish are and not a mark. Everything plotted here is also listed below.

Sources for this place

The marinas of the Azores — the regional record, island by island — Visit Azores (Turismo dos Açores), publishing the marina records of Portos dos Açores, S.A. (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: The regional marina record for Velas on São Jorge: its position on the island, its facilities, and its distance from Horta and Lajes do Pico.States this directlyPassage read and verified
EMODnet — the European Marine Observation and Data Network — The European Commission, assembled from the national hydrographic offices, geological surveys and marine institutes of the member states (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Charted bathymetry, seabed substrate and seabed habitat for European sea areas, assembled from the national hydrographic and geological surveys, at the resolution the product publishes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
The European Environment Agency's assessments of Europe's waters, seas and coasts — European Environment Agency, Copenhagen (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Assessment of Europe's coasts and regional seas, including the condition of coastal water bodies, the pressures recorded on them and the coverage of designated sites.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-29.

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