The WGEXT group of ICES - International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, which studies the impact of marine aggregate extraction, is meeting this week in the city of Horta on the island of Faial. This initiative has the support of the Regional Secretariat for Natural Resources.

The meeting is being attended by scientists, technicians in the extraction industry, environmental managers from several member countries of ICES and by a technician from the Regional Directorate for Sea Affairs. This event provides participants with an opportunity to become acquainted with the latest developments in the extraction of aggregates.

These technical meetings are intended to draw up a report for ICES describing the annual situation of each country with regard to the volume of aggregate extraction, the evolution of legislation and the results of environmental impact studies on aggregate extraction.

Speaking on the effects of the extraction of marine sediments on the marine ecosystem at the annual technical meeting of this working group, the Regional Director for Fisheries, Luís Costa, emphasised the prestige of the event and the added value brought by its organisation in the Azores.

According to the government official, this initiative promotes "the dissemination of the Region and the discussion of various matters, being a contribution to the development of tools for the effective management of marine sand either at the level of direct environmental impact, with loss and mobilisation of subsoil, or at the level of coastal protection with the uncontrolled extraction of aggregates that may weaken the seashore."

Luís Costa defended that "knowledge is the first step towards a sustainable use of any resource" and "in the particular case of the Azores, this is not just a purely political approach" since "Azorean citizens recently had the opportunity to express their opinion on different spatial management tools. According to the results of the survey, it was decided to adopt models based on sustainability."

The Regional Director for Fisheries welcomed the choice of the Azores to host this meeting, recalling that the Region has witnessed the adoption of relevant measures in the context of the last steps for the implementation of environmental and maritime policies in Europe.
 
Luís Costa recalled, for example, "the launch of the Integrated Maritime Policy in 2005, an event attended by the President of the European Commission, which represented a turning point in European politics with the return of Europe to the Atlantic."
 
"It was also in the Azores that the criteria used for the selection of sensitive areas on the high seas for future protection were adopted under the Convention on Biological Diversity and, nowadays, these criteria are known as the Azores Criteria," recalled the Regional Director. In this context, the government official also said that "the first Workshop of the Atlantic Forum was held in the archipelago last year with the purpose of defining the Action Plan for the Atlantic Strategy."
 
Luís Costa also stressed that the Region is preparing a document on the maritime spatial planning around the archipelago, considering it "a document of special relevance for the future use of the Azores Sea in the context of the different activities that might be developed."