Óbidos Lagoon: A Lagoa de Óbidos
I first discovered the Lagoa de Óbidos in 2005 when I was introduced to it by my friend Pedro Libório. He took me there to photograph the boats and landscapes, and I have been hooked by the place ever since.
Óbidos Lagoon is on the coast between Peniche and São Martinho do Porto. It once reached as far inland as Óbidos. If you care to look around Óbidos Castle, you can find traces of where boats once tied up. Now the lagoon is a good two miles from Óbidos, and as you drive past the fields of apple and pear trees, you can only imagine what the lagoon would have looked like with its waters lapping against the walls of this impressive fortress.
It is a fragile ecosystem, with its delicate balance of fresh water from the river Arelho and run-off from the surrounding farmland with the salt water that washes through with each tide, providing just the right level of salinity for the molluscs for which it is famed. These molluscs support an entire food chain as well as a livelihood for a dwindling number of fishermen.
This balance is under increasing natural and man-made threats. Recent developments, particularly the felling of vast numbers of trees to make way for a golf resort and the construction of hundreds of houses destined for tourism and the planting of non-native, quick growing eucalyptus for the paper industry has effectively dried out much of the soil, resulting in more sediment finding its way into the shallow lagoon.
Increasingly frequent storms along the coast have also had a dramatic effect in recent years, by causing the channel between the lagoon and the sea to move and occasionally close up entirely. The movement of the channel from north to south is a natural process, and there is a natural tendency for the channel to close. Should it be allowed to do so, existing salinity levels would be affected, inevitably killing the molluscs. With no way for the sand to clear out, and with the water evaporating faster than the small streams can refill the lagoon, it would disappear very quickly.
The authorities have been fairly vigilant, and were quick to jump into action when the lagoon's entrance to the sea closed following a storm in 2009. The existential threat to the lagoon was laid bare for all to see and it would appear people are now more protective of this beautiful lagoon. One can only hope that protecting this unique and precious area will continue to outweigh the economic desire to develop and exploit it as before and that any future developments will be sympathetic to this extremely fragile ecosystem.
