José Manuel Fernandes says Vila Praia de Âncora small harbour reconfiguration will be completed by 2030

Vila Praia de Âncora small harbour: a long-standing problem

The Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, José Manuel Fernandes, said on Friday that the reconfiguration works at the small harbour of Vila Praia de Âncora will go ahead and be delivered by 2030.

Local fishing crews have been calling for the port infrastructure to be corrected almost since it opened in 2003. In their view, the harbour was built with an unsuitable layout, which causes the entrance channel to silt up continuously. Although the reconfiguration plan has passed through successive governments, it has never progressed beyond paper.

Project contract in 2025: design, environmental study and cost-benefit analysis

In 2025, the Government moved forward with procuring the detailed design, the environmental impact assessment and the cost-benefit analysis, for a total of 694,950 thousand euros (including VAT).

“We are doing something that, unfortunately, had not been done before. A project is needed, as well as an environmental impact assessment for this reconfiguration. At the moment it is a bit speculative to talk about the cost amounts, but it is very high. After that we will have to secure funding, possibly in a programme that will succeed Sustainable 2030,” José Manuel Fernandes told journalists in Vila Praia de Âncora. He was speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony to sign agreements for the handover of a building that has been inactive for two decades and for the creation of a BMar service desk on the site.

Timeline to 2030 and procurement steps

The minister set out an indicative timetable for the Vila Praia de Âncora small harbour reconfiguration. “What I hope is that by around 2030 this work will be finished. It always takes longer than it should, but we have to complete the prior hearings and the public procurement contracts, because these are large sums and could even mean an international public tender [to carry out the works],” he said. He added: “One thing is certain, it will be done (...) and it will not be make-believe like what happened in the past, saying there were studies that did not exist, impact studies that did not exist and models that did not correspond to anything.”

José Manuel Fernandes, who was met by a protest against dredging by three men linked to fishing, said the future works are intended “to give fishermen proper conditions and avoid the annual costs of dredging”. He also described it as “unacceptable” that the building now being handed over to fishermen had been “deteriorating for 20 years without being used”. “It is timely that Docapesca and the municipal council will make it available for the purposes it was built for, for boating and for fishing,” he remarked.

Building handover and the planned “House of the Sea”

Carlos Sampaio, spokesperson for the local fishermen’s association, said the building opened in 2013 and “was never used”. He added that the space needs an investment of “around 80 thousand euros” for refurbishment and for the creation of the “Vila Praia de Âncora House of the Sea”. The plan includes social areas to support the fishing community, a federated team for offshore sport fishing, and school sport activities with schools.

On the harbour reconfiguration itself, he said: “We are thinking of inaugurating the sea harbour at the end of 2030, beginning of 2031.” “Vila Praia de Âncora was the last sea harbour to be built by the DGRM and possibly it will be the first to be upgraded,” he concluded.