Pedro Raposo de Almeida warns of the lamprey crisis and points the way to recovery
The 2025 lamprey season began with a worrying scenario: a shortage of fish and high prices, reaching between 100 and 120 euros per specimen. With a reduced harvest on the River Minho and fewer fishing days due to bad weather, this is already considered the worst year ever for lamprey. 
For MARE director Pedro Raposo de Almeida, who has been following the situation closely, this is just another reflection of the species' continuing decline, which has been going on since 2014. In an interview with Jornal de Notícias, MARE's director explained that the lamprey's life cycle is long and that if the 2025 harvest isn't satisfactory, the coming years could be even more difficult.
“Hope is the last thing to die, but if this isn't a good year for lamprey, the following years won't be famous at all. They'll be terrible,” says the researcher. This crisis is already a global problem, affecting not only Portuguese rivers, but also other international ecosystems. “Something is happening in the sea. There are fewer and fewer animals returning. The mortality of lampreys in the sea on this side of the Atlantic has increased a lot recently, probably because of global change.”
To try to mitigate the situation, fishing restrictions are in place on several Portuguese rivers, such as the Minho, Lima, Vouga and Mondego, with a reduction in fishing days and restrictions on gear such as the botirão. Pedro Raposo de Almeida argues that fishing with this gear should be banned because it is “unfair to the animal”.
But the solution isn't just restrictions. The researcher also proposes the manual translocation of lampreys “One of the things that's important to do this year, if it's a good year, is manual translocation [transferring species from one area to another], which is basically buying the lampreys from fishermen, and instead of them going into the restaurant market, they're put into vehicles on life support equipment and taken upstream, to places where they'll discover the breeding grounds,” he explains.
This translocation process will be carried out as part of a project by the Coimbra Region Intermunicipal Community, which is still awaiting European funding. However, the success of the measure depends on the cooperation of fishermen and the resources available, since lamprey can be sold at high prices, which this year are at record highs of 100 and 120 euros per specimen. “The problem is lamprey at 100 euros and we need to do this with several hundred animals. And we, MARE and the University of Évora, will have to come up with the money,” he reveals.
Despite the challenging scenario, Pedro Raposo de Almeida maintains a hopeful outlook and argues that, with patience, it is possible to restore the lamprey population. “This species is going through a very bad period, yes. I have no doubt that it can recover, but it will take time. It may take almost ten years, because of the seven-year cycle. There's no way of doing this differently, because nature has defined it like this: five years in fresh water and two years in the sea. There's no turning back,” he concludes.
To read the article in Jornal de Notícias click HERE
Cover photo by the DiadSea project