Faro Roncudo Percebeiro cabo Roncudo Cabo Roncudo Cruces do Roncudo Porto de Corme Corme nevado, 1956 Vistas Dunas da Barra Litoral Niñóns e porto de Santa Mariña. Vista aérea Praia de Ninóns Ponteceso de noite

Freshwater fish or saltwater fish?

  • Former eel-picker with his gears
  • Former eel-picker with his gears
  • Eel-picker gears

We'll find several species of freshwater fish in the River Anllóns such as trout (Salmo trutta fario), northern straight-mouth nase (Chondrostomaduriense) and Squalius carolitertii, which lives its entire life cycle in river channels.

Other, much rarer species, – which are, in fact, endangered – alternate life at sea with life in the river during their life cycles. One of the most serious of these cases is that of the lamprey (Petromyzom marinus), which is suffering from a serious global situation in which the enclave of the Anllóns is valuable for its conservation. Lampreys (an anadromous species) are born in the river and after about 20 or 30 months migrate out to sea, from where they return after a year or two to spawn, making the trip between February and May.

Eel-picker gears

Another endangered species – although in a less difficult situation than that of the lamprey, is the eel (Anguilla anguilla). This is a catadromous species – that is, it is born in the Sargasso Sea, from where it reaches the European and North African coasts as a larva after three to seven years of travelling the Atlantic Ocean thanks to the Gulf Stream. Once near estuaries like that of the Anllóns, where it acquires its dark colouring, the larva becomes an eel and starts up the river. Once it is in the river, it turns from yellow to silver, an indicator of sexual maturity and it begins its journey back to the Sargasso Sea to spawn.

Eel fishing in the Anllóns estuary was a very important productive activity for Ponteceso locals, who practised it until recently. In the "escurada" (with very dark night) during the darkest nights of the months from October and February and – depending on the year – even up to April, and always at the head of the tide, the figures of the eel catchers who fish on foot can be seen near the mouth of the Anllóns. Upstream and downstream of the bridge with their torches and their homemade fishing sieves for draining the silvery delicacy caught with their trueiros or traditional fishing nets.

Lastly, we find brown trout (Salmo trutta trutta), similar to the common trout, but which migrate, as they travel upriver to spawn back around August.

Together, the River Anllóns and its estuary make up an ecosystem of major importance to the conservation of our freshwater fish and, in this regard, we must lament the disappearance of the salmon (Salmo salar) before the 1990s. This wealth of fish has also been important in local culture and cuisine, creating customs that today are almost forgotten.

Links

  • GAC 3 Costa da Morte
  • Fondo Europeo de Pesca
  • Ministerio de Agricultura, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente
  • Consellería do Medio Rural e do Mar
  • Web municipal Ponteceso
© 2012 Ponteceso. Os Camiños do Mar