Ria de Aveiro - Portugal

The Ria de Aveiro, also known as Foz do Vouga, is a lagoon that exists in the region of Aveiro, between Ovar and Mira.
It is a shallow coastal lagoon with extensive intertidal zones, extending into the interior of Portuguese territory, parallel to the Atlantic Ocean, over 45 kilometers in length and with a maximum width of 11 kilometers. Its area covers two districts (Aveiro and Coimbra) and the towns of Aveiro, Estarreja, Ílhavo, Mira, Murtosa, Ovar and Vagos.
The estuary is the result of the retreat of the sea, with the formation of coastal ridges that, from the 16th century, formed a lagoon that constitutes one of the most important and beautiful geographic features of the Portuguese coast.
In total, the entire mouth covers eleven thousand hectares, six thousand of which are permanently flooded, unfolding into four important channels branched into streams that surround countless islands and islets. The rivers Vouga, Antuã, Boco and Fontão flow into it, with the only communication with the sea being a channel that cuts the coastline between Barra and São Jacinto, allowing access to the port of Aveiro by deep-draft vessels.
Rich in fish and water birds, it has large water planes, ideal places to practice all water sports. Furthermore, even though it has lost, from year to year, the importance it once had in the economy of Aveiro, the production of salt, using ancient techniques, is still one of the most characteristic traditional activities in the city of Aveiro.