The Regional Secretary for the Sea, Science and Technology stated in Vila Franca do Campo that the Azores are "recognised as an ornithological tourist destination," pointing out the increasing number of people travelling to the archipelago to "watch birds, namely seabirds."
 
Fausto Brito e Abreu spoke during a monitoring campaign of Tern Census 2016, held under the celebrations of the World Oceans Day, which is marked on this date.
 
The Regional Secretary for Sea highlighted "the importance of the oceans to society at an economic and environmental level," adding that the Regional Government has promoted various awareness campaigns for the conservation of the marine environment.
 
The Tern Census 2016 is organised by the Regional Directorate for Sea Affairs in collaboration with the Island Nature Parks. It aims to quantify the populations of the two main species of terns nesting in the Azores, namely the common-tern (Sterna hirundo) and the roseate tern (Sterna dougalii).
 
"A total of 22 nests, that is, 44 common tern couples were identified in the colony of Vila Franca do Campo Islet," the government official said, adding that "there are also roseate tern nests on Caloura Islet and Vinha D'Areia."
 
Brito e Abreu also emphasised that "about 50% of roseate terns found in Europe" nest in the archipelago of the Azores, noting that this species is considered to be "one of the 30 rarest species in the European continent."
 
For this reason, the government official defended that the Region has "a special responsibility to protect roseate terns."
 
"The fact that these birds choose to nest in our region demonstrates that we have healthy ecosystems on our islands," said the government official.
 
Under the Tern Census 2016, the Government of the Azores, through the Regional Directorate for Sea Affairs, chartered boats on the nine islands of the archipelago for the counting of these birds and funded the acquisition of appropriate optical equipment for bird watching, including binoculars and telescopes; this will allow technicians to count birds in the most inaccessible colonies.
 
These technicians also received training on bird counting methodologies. The training course was taught by a researcher of the University of the Azores (IMAR/DOP).
 
The monitoring campaigns held in 2015 led to the discovery of the second largest colony of roseate terns in Europe, which is located on Praia Islet on the island of Graciosa.