The Regional Secretariat for the Sea, Science and Technology, through The Regional Directorate for Sea Affairs, has recently concluded the reassessment of the environmental status of the Azores' marine waters, which has resulted in a series of new environmental goals with the aim of ensuring the good environmental status of marine environments.
 
The results of the report on the reassessment of the archipelago's marine environment are under public consultation until February 10 on the website of the Regional Directorate for Sea Affairs.
 
In Portugal, the transposition of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is applicable to marine waters under national sovereignty or jurisdiction. They include the marine region of the Northeast Atlantic and the sub-regions of the Iberian Coast and Macaronesia, where the archipelago of the Azores is located.
 
The initial assessment of the environmental status of the Region's marine environment was carried out in 2014 and its reassessment, which is now under public consultation, corresponds to the first cycle of implementation of the MSFD, which ran from 2012 to 2018.
 
In this regard, 11 environmental descriptors were assessed, each according to a set of criteria, covering biodiversity (D1), non-indigenous species (D2), exploitation of commercial species (D3), food ecology and food chains (D4), eutrophication (D5), changes in seabed (D6), change in hydrological patterns (D7), contaminants (in the environment and commercial species for human consumption) (D8 and D9), marine litter (D10) and marine noise (D11).
 
In addition to the assessment of descriptors, the process also encompassed the analysis of activities, pressures and impacts on the marine environment as well as an economic and social analysis of the Region's maritime space.
 
The report is under public consultation on the website of the Regional Directorate for Sea Affairs and on the website of the Directorate General for Natural Resources, Safety and Maritime Services.
 
For more information, interested parties can consult the address http://www.azores.gov.pt/Gra/SRMCT-MAR/conteudos/livres/Strategia_Marinha_para_a_subdivisao_dos_Acores.htm