The Regional Secretary for the Sea, Science and Technology highlighted today the importance of the new campaign to monitor the status of demersal and deep-sea species, which starts Thursday in Condor Bank. The initiative has the support of the Azorean Government.

Fausto Brito e Abreu found that the monitoring campaigns carried out in that seamount are "very important" because they allow the Azores to present to the European Commission "reliable scientific data on the abundance of species with high commercial value," which can prevent further cuts in fishing quotas from 2016.

Since 2008, the Condor seamount has been the subject of several scientific studies coordinated by the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries of the University of the Azores. In 2010, it was classified as a special protection area for scientific purposes; hence the fishing of demersal and deep-sea species is banned in this area.

The creation of this special protection area aims to better understand the recovery dynamics of fish species of commercial interest, after decades of intensive exploitation.

Therefore, this seamount is an area of reference to assess the evolution of the abundance of several demersal species compared to other islands in the archipelago, where fishing activities are not subject to restrictions. It allows the evaluation of the environmental impact and the effects of fishing activities in the annual trends of different fish stocks.

In this context, Brito e Abreu stated that scientific studies on demersal fish species, such as red seabream or blackbelly rosefish, taking place in the Condor bank "allow the monitoring natural fluctuations and the recovery of these species, which have a high commercial value for the fishing sector and contribute to the sustainable management of fisheries."

This will be the seventh monitoring campaign that will be carried out in Condor seamount, after five year and half years of fishing ban in this area. However, the use of fishing gear that do not affect seabed habitats, such as pole and line used for catching tuna, continues to be authorised.