WP6 – Case study: Mondego river

Pedro R. Almeida, Catarina S. Mateus, Bernardo R. Quintella; Carlos M. Alexandre; Sílvia Pedro; Ana Filipa Belo; Esmeralda Pereira Central region of Portugal (Mediterranean climate); Drains an area of 6644 km2 (second largest Portuguese river basin);

Mondego is one of the largest Portuguese rivers (234 km);

Highly regulated (8 hydroelectric dams with >10MW; 15 hydroelectric dams with <10MW);

Natural riverbed replaced by a 15 km channel downstream from Coimbra (1981). Place of residence (NUTS - Resident population 2013) (INE,2013)(INE,2013) Arganil 11181 ca. 384 000 residents Coimbra 134156 Condeixa-a-Nova 17583 • In a normal hydrological year 20% of the water is Figueira da Foz 59393 2 Montemor-o-Velho 25399 • 105 habitants / km ; used; Mortágua 8948 Oliveira do Hospital 19564 Penacova 13999 Penela 5485 Sub- Flow Water Surplus Resources Soure 17520 Tábua 11529 basin transfers demand discharge used Vila Nova de Poiares 6969 Pombal 52324 Dão 816 38 777 4.7% Mondego 2 755 272 2 482 9.9% Alva 182 8 174 4.5% Units: hm3 thermoelectric plants Livestock Industrial • Water demand by sector: 56% agriculture; Golf (Vouga,Mondego,Lis- APA I.P) 25% urban consumption; Agriculture Urban 17% industrial use.

WATER DEMAND (PGBH • Existence of important fishing communities; VOUGA,MONDEGO,LIS)

• The Mondego river watershed is one of the most important Portuguese river basins for diadromous fishes DIADROMOUS SPECIES IN MONDEGO

Petromyzontidae Petromyzon marinus L. – Sea lamprey (VU)

Salmonidae Salmo trutta (L.) – Sea trout (CR)

Clupeidae

ANADROMOUS Alosa alosa (L.) – Allis shad (EN) Alosa fallax (Lacépède, 1803) – Twaite shad (V)

Anguillidae Anguilla anguilla (L.) – European eel (EN)

Mugilidae Chelon ramada (Risso, 1827) – Thin lipped grey mullet (LC)

CATADROMOUS Pleuronectidae Available habitat Platichthys flesus (L.) – European flounder (DD) Unavailable habitat Linking ecosystem services with the socio-economic system 1. List of goods and services provided by 2. To identify the list of human activities diadromous species ✓ Degrading freshwater ecosystems where goods and services • Food source (human + wild predators); are provided • Nutrients transfer; • Flood control (dams and weirs); • Commercial fisheries income (lamprey • Electricity production; and allis shad); • Agriculture (water abstraction and pollution); • Cultural heritage (Penacova’s lamprey brotherhood); • Domestic treated effluents; • Tourism (several gastronomic festivals • Poaching; & angling); ✓ Closely linked to the identified goods and services: • Sport fishing competitions; • Restaurants income (lamprey, eels, • Water sports (e.g., kayaking, high performance center shads); for canoeing, paddling); • Scientific research & education • Trail center; • Public outreach (e.g., WFMD). • Sport fishing; • Birdwatching; • River beaches.

3. Reasons to identify and monetary assess the ecosystem goods and services • Assess the economic impact of the loss of these species (anthropogenic vs natural causes); • Promote sustainability through economic valorisation; • Evaluate the cost-benefits of habitat rehabilitation and species conservation actions. Linking ecosystem services with the socio-economic system 4. literature/previous 5. According to the previous literature, which values are assessed? works on monetary assessment of the Good PROMAR - Economic return (first sell) associated with rehabilitation measures to reestablish longitudinal connectivity for diadromous species and services identified [email protected] – Monitoring commercial fisheries landings; evaluation of the regional certification benefits;

DCF (Data Collection Framework) – European eel commercial landings. • Habitat restoration for diadromous fish in River Mondego (2013-15) – 6. According to the previous literature, which methodologies are implemented? PROMAR; • Commercial fisheries landings surveys (official and independent inquiries); • [email protected] (ongoing); • Fishway monitoring (visual counts); • DCF (Data Collection • Electrofishing samplings; Framework) (ongoing); • Acoustic and radio telemetry; • SUDOANG (ongoing) • Regional certification implementations (shads and lamprey). First story around diadromous fishes illustrating the importance of this Ancient fishing practices and their resource in the case study unsustainability

The use of this type of traps (“caneiros”) was common in the Middle Age.

In 1217 monks from the S. Jorge monastery at Coimbra used several of these fishing traps in the Mondego (Misarela) for more than 25 years.

The use of this fishing technique was known to be highly detrimental to fish populations in the Douro, Mondego, Zêzere and Tejo rivers (15th century).

Beluga Huso huso fishery in the Danube river (IronGate, Romania), 19th century (Ludwig Ermini). Some issue are timeless: fisheries in medieval times and nowadays

XIV to XVI Centuries XXI Century

The King D. João I complains about the traps present in Conflicts between fisherman from freshwater and the Montemor strech not allowing the fish to get to his maritime jurisdiction. private fishing channel at Coimbra. License costs. D. João I rented his fishing channel at Coimbra for 1/6 of the allis shad caught and 1/10 of the lampreys and Important economic activity during migration season. other fish among other fees. Lamprey and shad are sold at restaurants at high prices. Reports of fishermen abandoning their usual shores to go fish for shads and lampreys, and of foreign merchants coming to Portuguese rivers to buy larges quantities of shads and lampreys.

Very high comodoty that only the King, nobles and clergy had access too. Second story around diadromous fishes illustrating the importance of this resource in the case study

Habitat rehabilitation and the recovery of lamprey populations on river stretches unavailable for 30 years

60 ca. × 100 50

40 ./h)

nr 30

20 CPUE CPUE ( 10 0 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Year UpstreamMontante DownstreamJusante Habitat rehabilitation and the recovery of allis shad population

10000 9276

(N) 7503 25000 8000 6000 5390 5446 20000 4000 3427

2000 966 Shad counts Shad counts 15000 0 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Landings (kg) Landings 10000 Year

5000

0

1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018… Year Allis shad commercial landings at Figueira da Foz ADDRESS PHONE & EMAIL SOCIAL MEDIA MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre [email protected] www.facebook.com/MARE-Centro-de-Ciências-do- Departamento de Biologia - Polo da Mitra [email protected] Mar-e-do-Ambiente-717643664963490/ Universidade de Évora, Apartado 94 7002-554 Évora +351 266 740 800 www.facebook.com/uevora/ PORTUGAL @univdeevora; @MARE_centre @PMRAlmeida; @CatarinaPMateus; @sypetra @FilipaBelo3; @Eper7; @CarlosMAlexand Beneficiary partner Associated partners