Protecting the Azores’ Hidden Wonders

A deep-sea diver off the coast of the Azores navigates a hidden world. They float over dizzying abyssal cliffs, where the ocean floor suddenly plunges to dark depths, and traverse volcanic caverns. Crevices shelter octopuses and lush deep-sea corals teem with colorful creatures. The diver might encounter a whale, or stare into the flat silver face of a 5,000-pound sunfish.

Today, 30% of the waters surrounding the Azores are safeguarded as part of the largest marine protected area (MPA) network in the North Atlantic. This achievement marks a monumental step forward in ocean conservation — one made possible by decades of research and collaboration that began 25 years ago at NCEAS.

“MPAs increase the abundance and diversity of critters inside the protected area, and much of that bounty spills outside. If we want healthy, productive, resilient ocean ecosystems, we need marine reserves,” said Dr. Jane Lubchenco, distinguished professor at Oregon State University and deputy director for climate and the environment for the White House ​Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Biden.

The Azores MPA network is more than a local victory. It’s a beacon of progress for the global goal to protect 30% of the planet by 2030, or 30x30, as declared at the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference. It exemplifies the impact of work that began in 1999 when scientists, policymakers, and members of the global fishing community gathered for an NCEAS working group. Their mission: to determine how to protect and enhance marine life through MPAs.

At the time, a fragmented 0.01% of the ocean was protected in marine reserves. Lubchenco recalls the questions that swirled around MPAs. How many do we need to help marine life recover? How big do they need to be, and how far apart? What kind of protections should exist — fully protected zones that prohibit all fishing, or protections for specific species?

“Most of the scientists involved then had never worked on MPAs before,” said Lubchenco, who co-led the working group. “Now, they are the experts who advise governments and interpret the science for citizens who design MPA proposals. NCEAS creativity and excitement took on a life of its own and inspired individuals as well as scientific advancement.”

The NCEAS group published a groundbreaking collection of 25 papers that formed the scientific basis for modern ocean conservation around the world. Creative communications partnerships brought the science to changemakers. Ultimately, these studies provided the scientific backing for international policies. Each new MPA brings us closer to achieving the 30x30 vision: 8% percent of the world's oceans are safeguarded today.

That work was just the beginning. Research for a more vibrant ocean continues at NCEAS, currently through a team that develops and deploys an interactive tool for global MPA design: SeaSketch. From the Maldives to British Columbia, communities use SeaSketch to share guiding knowledge about which parts of the ocean are culturally and economically important. SeaSketch was instrumental in shaping the Azores MPA network.

SeaSketch has long been supported by the Waitt Institute, which has been supporting governments in their efforts to undertake marine spatial planning and to establish MPA networks in island nations around the world.

“When we started our partnership with Barbuda in 2013, we conducted dozens of ocean-use surveys with SeaSketch,” said Dr. Kathryn Mengerink, executive director of the Waitt Institute. “Fast forward to our partnership in the Maldives. In 2021, our Maldivian team conducted surveys on all of the 180 inhabited islands, which represented more than 25,000 people who use the ocean. This increase in scale is one of my favorite SeaSketch success stories.”

SeaSketch accelerated the Azores MPA system by gathering community knowledge and iterating quickly. Feedback about fishing and tourism was combined with environmental data, and in partnership with the community, SeaSketch scientists created maps and reports to optimize both the protection of marine habitats and continued local livelihoods.

The Azores offer a vision for the future of our oceans. Island nations are on the frontlines of challenges like depleted fisheries and biodiversity loss. But with the help of tools like SeaSketch, they are also at the forefront of the solution, leading the way in marine conservation. When we safeguard our seas, we build a more resilient future.