Coimbra region defends urgent measures to preserve lamprey in Mondego

The Intermunicipal Community (CIM) of the Coimbra Region today defended “urgent” measures to reverse the decline in the lamprey population in the Mondego River.

In a statement released today, the CIM of the Coimbra Region called for “the urgent taking of measures by the competent entities to reverse the decline in the lamprey population in the Mondego River”.

According to the same note, the CIM expressed its “deep concern” about the sharp reduction in lampreys in that river, at the last meeting of the intermunicipal council, which took place on March 22.

For the Coimbra Region, the drastic reduction that has occurred in recent years “puts the preservation of this emblematic species of the Mondego River at risk, with serious impacts on the ecosystem and the local economy”.

In February, the Chamber of Penacova decided to cancel the Lamprey Festival, due to the scarcity of that fish, while the Chamber of Montemor-o-Velho, whose president heads the CIM of the Coimbra Region, decided to go ahead with the event, which took place in March.

According to the CIM note, the director of the Center for Marine and Environmental Sciences (MARE), Pedro Raposo, was present at the last intermunicipal council, where he addressed the shortage of lamprey in Mondego.

In February, speaking to Lusa, the specialist in anadromous fish (species that, like the lamprey, reproduce in fresh water, but that develop in the sea) defended the ban on fishing for that fish to guarantee its recovery.

“The situation has worsened. It’s a succession of bad years. 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023 were bad years, caused by drought and other situations that cannot yet be explained, as there is a lack of knowledge about what happens to the species at sea, where there may be more mortality,” he said, in height, Pedro Raposo.

The researcher explained that the situation was not exclusive to Portugal, but that the country has the aggravating factor of being the southern limit of the species’ distribution.

If, in the past, the drought and consequent reduction in river flows could explain the drop in the population going up the rivers, this year “the flows are not bad”, but the situation has not improved and “everything suggests that it could be the worst year” since the team recorded the passage of the lamprey in the Coimbra bridge dam.

In that passage through the Mondego, a river where lamprey fishing is an ancestral tradition, only 295 specimens were recorded in 2017, 717 in 2019, 1,328 specimens in 2020, 832 in 2022, and 1,508 in 2023, records very far from the maximum values ​​( more than 20 thousand in 2014 and around 11 thousand in 2018).

“If we were consistent, we should close fishing. Any animal should be given the opportunity to reproduce, if not within seven years [ciclo de vida da lampreia] it will be even worse”, argued the director of MARE at the time.