Lamprey in Danger: Scarcity by 2025 Threatens Ecosystems and Local Economy

The scarcity of lamprey in the 2025 season is being felt not only by the scientific community, but also by traders and fishermen. In an interview with the Público newspaper, MARE director Pedro Raposo de Almeida warned that “If the resource continues as it is, and if we don't stop fishing for lamprey, one of these days there won't be any”.  

Despite the researcher's many warnings, fishing for these animals has still not been stopped. As a result, the decline in lamprey populations is becoming more and more pronounced.

“I've been everywhere, to all the meetings, I keep repeating myself,” Pedro Raposo de Almeida explains. “If we were consistent with what's happening, we should close the fishery. Not tomorrow, but as soon as possible, in March, not April. This applies to the Mondego as well as the Vouga or the Lima. But people are reluctant to do so. Because if the issue of days at sea isn't going to affect them, then in fresh water, and especially in rivers that have fishing grounds, where fishing, as it's further upstream, is expected to last until the beginning of May, it would be a problem for fishermen.”

In addition to environmental concerns, the decline in lamprey populations also has major economic and social implications. “The concern at this stage is also with all the economic activity involved in exploiting lamprey. Before the lamprey run out, the fishermen run out and the festivals run out,” says the researcher.

Despite fishermen reporting an improvement in the quantity of lampreys caught, “we still have figures that are completely lower than what we would expect”.

MARE's director is still waiting for positive data, which could arrive at the end of April, for example. Even so, it would be a small balm to alleviate the problem. Pedro Raposo believes that, by now, “the political and economic powers have long since realized the scale of the problem”. “But between realizing and acting, it takes time. Sometimes those who manage the resource tend to let nature fulfill its destiny,” he concludes, knowing that ‘the measure is reasonably unpopular’. Because if the fishery really did close, “any fisherman would have to be prepared to only see a return on this sacrifice in eight years”, the time it takes to renew a lamprey population: five years in fresh water, as a larva, plus two more at sea, before returning to the rivers.

Pedro Raposo de Almeida recalls that we are facing “a sequence of very bad years”, which is also being felt in Spain and France. But last week a shipment arrived in Portugal. “Fishermen, especially in the north, immediately started asking questions because the price had dropped.”

MARE's director believes that most of the lamprey now being consumed in Portugal may come precisely from the Bordeaux region. “They are the ones supplying our market here. If that weren't the case, the price wouldn't be 100 euros a kg, it would be much more expensive.”

Despite this, “We still haven't given up hope of seeing, as scientists, what we thought this year would be: a year of recovery. Looking at the population dynamics of recent years, it would be the result of a good recruitment than we had seven or eight years ago,” he concludes.