The Azores: A Mid-Atlantic Hotspot for Marine Megafauna Research and Conservation

The increasing public perception that marine megafauna is under threat is an
outstanding incentive to investigate their essential habitats (EMH), their responses
to human and climate change pressures, and to better understand their largely
unexplained behaviors and physiology. Yet, this poses serious challenges such as
the elusiveness and remoteness of marine megafauna, the growing scrutiny and
legal impositions on their study, and difficulties in disentangling environmental drivers
from human disturbance. We argue that advancing our knowledge and conservation
on marine megafauna can and should be capitalized in regions where exceptional
access to multiple species (i.e., megafauna ‘hotspots’) combines with the adequate
legal framework, sustainable practices, and research capacity. The wider Azores
region, hosting EMHs of all key groups of vulnerable or endangered vertebrate marine
megafauna, is a singular EMH hotspot on a migratory crossroads, linking eastern and
western Atlantic margins and productive boreal waters to tropical seas. It benefits
from a sustainable development model based on artisanal fisheries with zero or
minor megafauna bycatch, and one of the largest marine protected area networks in
the Atlantic covering coastal, oceanic and deepsea habitats. Developing this model
can largely ensure the future integrity of this EMH hotspot while fostering cuttingedge
science and technological development on megafauna behavior, biologging and
increased ocean observation, with potential major impacts on the Blue Growth agenda.
An action plan is proposed.