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59<br />
“NEVER TURN YOUR BACK on God when<br />
you’re searching for Lucifer’s fingers.” The cold<br />
words come from the shadows, somewhere near<br />
midnight under the bridge crossing the Rio Arade<br />
in Portimão on the Algarve. The stark warning<br />
send chills down my spine, and I quickly shake<br />
off the wariness that’s set in after days of walking<br />
the streets of the seaside city, from the local fish<br />
market to the Club da Companheira, where<br />
retired fishermen crowd around plastic tables<br />
to down Superbok and Sagres beers. My travel<br />
companion, photographer Tim E. White, and I<br />
have been on a mission: to find someone, anyone,<br />
who can tell us about the divers who risk their lives<br />
to find percebes – delicacies, particularly popular<br />
around Christmas time, that have been dubbed the<br />
“truffles of the sea”.<br />
Late on day three we get lucky. We meet<br />
commercial salvage diver João Rosário in his<br />
diving shop, Pinguim Sub. He explains that the<br />
earlier warning was not to be taken personally.<br />
“God”, he explains, references the might of the sea.<br />
“When you dive for percebes, and you turn your<br />
back on the unpredictability of the ocean, you<br />
will be injured or killed. There are many cases<br />
where divers were knocked unconscious and<br />
drowned. The lucky ones break an arm or leg<br />
or suffer abrasions when the rocks cut through<br />
their wetsuits.” Oh, and yes, the colourful thumbs<br />
sticking out from the rocks are commonly likened<br />
to the devil’s digits.<br />
Percebes are filter-feeding crustaceans attached<br />
to rocks in the ocean. They can reach prices<br />
anywhere between €15 and €45 per kilogram at<br />
market. They’re an expensive rarity because they<br />
cannot be farmed and only survive in turbulent<br />
seas under the low water mark where crashing<br />
waves feed them with plankton. The rougher the<br />
sea, the larger the percebes, but also the harder to<br />
get to and the higher the potential price.<br />
To reach them, many fishermen climb down<br />
the cliffs with ropes to chisel them off at low tide<br />
between sets of waves. The operation is dangerous<br />
since the cliffs can reach up to 100 metres high. If<br />
you survive a fall, chances are you will be crushed<br />
Rechts: Angler an den<br />
Klippen vor Sagres<br />
Links: Farbenfrohe<br />
Wandmalerei in Portimão<br />
Right: Fishermen<br />
on the cliffs in Sagres<br />
Left: A colourful mural<br />
in Portimão
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