Intervention by the Regional Secretary for Sea and Fisheries – Communication

Regional Secretariat for Sea and Fisheries

Full text of the intervention by the Regional Secretary for Sea and Fisheries, Mário Rui Pinho, given today, in Horta, at the presentation of the Program of the XIV Regional Government of the Azores:

“The Program of the XIV Government for the sea and fisheries area confirms the high importance and attention we give to the Azores sea as an area of ​​maritime jurisdiction of Portugal, with high economic potential, which confers considerable strategic position and geopolitical affirmation within the scope of Atlantic basin.

This Government Program combines the different concerns of environmental monitoring and conservation with the processes of economic development of maritime uses and activities, emerging or traditional, and also with the concerns of supervision and control, in line with the regional strategy of the sea, which we intend to finalize this year.

For environmental conservation issues, we will complete the process of the Maritime Spatial Planning and Protected Marine Areas Status Plan, simultaneously responding to the fulfillment of the State’s responsibilities, the recovery of marine ecosystems and the affirmation of autonomy, through legislative discussion of these instruments, which is already underway and which this chamber, at the right time, will have the opportunity to comment on.

We have the ambition to complete this project of the ‘cluster’ of the Azores Sea and, through this technological route, be able to give greater increase to instruments such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, working to strengthen the basis of scientific support in defining good environmental status of the Azores Sea. thus giving formal credibility to the concept of sustainability.

For the development of economic activities, the Government Program continues the concerns of developing emerging activities such as coastal tourism, maritime tourism activities, aquaculture, biotechnology, robotics and the blue bioeconomy. In these matters, we will focus on boosting Hub Azul Azores, seeking to organize networks of entrepreneurs at various scales (regional, Macaronesia, national and international).

The Government hopes to create synergies between strategic partners, such as universities, entities from the scientific and technological system of the Azores, Escola do Mar dos Açores, navy, air force, private entities, among others. I

It is important at this level to draw attention to the Government’s concern in trying to organize all the information on the Azores sea, proposing for this purpose to study the creation of a SEA CENTER data collection and processing center, which allows georeferenced scientific information to be summarized, thus as well as all statistical information on the maritime economy.

A word for the consolidation of the Escola do Mar dos Açores as a determining asset in the future ‘cluster’ of the Azores. There will be no development of the maritime economy without excellent training activities for maritime careers. In the medium term, the Government expects national and international recognition of the Escola do Mar dos Açores as a training center for maritime professions.

For traditional areas of the economy, the XIV Government wants to continue to give relevance to the fishing sector. The Regional Government intends to adjust the fishing fleet to the available living resources, by restructuring it, making it safer, more efficient and sustainable.

At the same time, we propose to continue restructuring support infrastructures, such as auctions, ports, cold systems, cranes and gantries, reinforcing the quality of production and marketing services.

We propose to reinforce the strategy for promoting our fish, in internal and external markets, focusing in particular on species that are less sought after and of lower commercial value, in order to value them and at the same time seek to diversify fishing efforts towards less exploited resources. It is a work of continuity.

As part of this policy of diversification and adjustment of fishing effort to available resources, the Regional Government proposes to support the necessary investments in vessels that wish to obtain licensing for fishing-tourism.

Continue to develop the strategy for promoting aquaculture in the Azores, enhanced through the aquaculture center to be installed at Tecnopolo Martec.

Within the scope of regulation and control, the XIV Regional Government proposes to install video surveillance systems to monitor Protected Marine Areas and in strategic locations to defend legal fishing activity, without foregoing demanding that the State fulfill its sovereign tasks in the Azores, namely effective monitoring of the Azores Exclusive Economic Zone, also using new technologies such as drones and satellite surveillance.

It is also planned to acquire and install VMS/EMC-MONICAP systems, which will allow the monitoring and location of fishing vessels operating in the Autonomous Region of the Azores.”