“A Ria de Aveiro” – The river of Aveiro

The “ria” is composed by a huge diversity of habitats as the “Estuário” or river, “Banco de Areia” (sandbank), “sapal” (where you can find frogs), beach or sandbanks, lake of sweet or salted water.
The river, with the “Reserva Natural das Dunas de S.Jacinto” and a diverse vegetation and fauna is one of the most known natural resource of Portugal.
It has a big ecological importance because of the vast diversity of habitats.
The free waters are habitat of a lot of sea vegetation, and it has a lot of “algas” species witch are aliment of some birds.
The rice and the corn are the most important productions of the agriculture lands. A big part of the river animals hides in those places.

The “Moliceiros” are boats witches tasks are the “ colheita” and transport of the river’s vegetation. That task is know as “apanha do moliço” or “catch of the Moliço”( the Moliço is a type of vegetation of the river), and its purpose is the transport of commercial products or animals.
The geographic area embraces all the river surface and its dimensions change by the places it navigates. These boats have decorative “paineis” and don’t catch the moliço anymore.

Today they’re in the river to the guided visits of the tourists that comes to the city.