Article

Fishing effort and enforcement in the Azores Marine Protected Areas: How prevalent is illegal fishing?

Ricardo Moura; Nuno Pessanha Santos; Maria Eduarda Catarino — 2025 — KeAi

Key information

Authors:

Ricardo Moura; Nuno Pessanha Santos (Nuno Alexandre Antunes Martins Pessanha Santos); Maria Eduarda Catarino

Published in

07/05/2025

Abstract

Fishing is a significant global food source, providing protein for millions of people. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is committed to ensuring access to high-quality food, reducing hunger, and promoting sustainable fisheries to address global population growth and hunger. However, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing poses a significant challenge, threatening marine biodiversity and food security. Portugal has the 10th largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), with waters around mainland Portugal, the Azores, and Madeira. This research focuses on the Azores region, known for its traditional multispecific fishery around the island slopes and seamounts. The region's fisheries face data scarcity issues and complicating effective management. By combining Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) records from 2016 to 2022 and Portuguese Navy (PoN) Fiscalization Reports (FISCREP) from 2015 to 2022, it was possible to use appropriate metrics to characterize the fishing effort and analyze the effectiveness of the inspections conducted in the Azores EEZ. The Total Boat-Meter (TBM) metric combines the number and length of boats to quantify the fishing effort better. The analysis shows that the fishing effort in the protected areas is very high, highlighting the pressure on the protected ecosystems. The findings aim to assist regulatory institutions and researchers in assessing fishing pressure and promoting sustainable fisheries management in the Azores to preserve marine ecosystems.

Publication details

Authors in the community:

Publication version

AM - Accepted manuscript

Publisher

KeAi

Link to the publisher's version

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468550X25000632

ISSN

2468-550X

DOI

10.1016/j.aaf.2025.05.002

Fields of Science and Technology (FOS)

electrical-engineering-electronic-engineering-information-engineering - Electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering

Keywords

  • Fisheries inspection
  • Fisheries analysis
  • Economic risk
  • Illegal fishing
  • Marine life
  • Ocean protected areas
  • Azores
  • Marine protected areas
  • Data analysis
  • Data visualization

Publication language (ISO code)

eng - English

Rights type:

Only metadata available

Creative Commons license

CC-BY - CC-BY