Osaka, Japan, July 21, 2025 (Lusa) - The executive director of the Portuguese Oceano Azul Foundation argued on Monday that, with the Gorringe Bank Marine Protected Area (MPA) and the moratorium on deep-sea mining, Portugal has become "a world leader" in ocean conservation.
On June 11, at the third United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, the Minister for the Environment, Maria da Graça Carvalho, announced the start of the process to create the Gorringe seamount MPA, southwest of the Algarve.
Today, on the sidelines of Expo2025 in Osaka, Tiago Pitta e Cunha emphasised to Lusa that this commitment raises the percentage of Portuguese sea covered by Marine Protected Areas from 19% to 25%, close to the global target of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030.
This comes after the Azores created the largest network of protected areas in the North Atlantic at the end of 2024, covering 30% of the region’s seas (around 300,000 square kilometres), half of which are under “total protection” status.
“With the marine protected areas that Portugal has announced, we are effectively one of the countries at the forefront of the ocean agenda. I am very proud of Portugal in this regard,” said Pitta e Cunha.
This opinion is shared by Joana Gomes Cardoso, Portugal’s commissioner-general at Expo 2025 in Osaka, whose participation has as its theme “Oceano: Diálogo Azul” (Ocean: Blue Dialogue).
“Perhaps since Expo98 [in Lisbon], the sea has become what I would call a national cause. It is no longer a cause of the left or the right, but rather a cause that cuts across the country,” she told Lusa.
“It makes perfect sense for Portugal to position itself through what it has been doing, which I would say is among the best in the world,” she added.
Tiago Pitta e Cunha also pointed out that “Portugal is the only country in Europe and one of the only ones in the world that has a law passed by Parliament that decrees - not defends, not declares - a moratorium until 2050 on deep-sea mining”.
“This is another of the big mistakes we may be on the verge of making. It is not worth declaring marine protected areas to protect the ocean and at the same time mining the ocean floor,” warned the expert.
The leader of Oceano Azul stressed that, unlike other countries, Portugal is not creating Marine Protected Areas “in the far reaches of the ocean, in areas so remote that there is no maritime transport and no economic exploitation”.
“We are doing this in the heart of the Atlantic Ocean,” said Pitta e Cunha, on the sidelines of an event on ocean protection organised on Marine Day, a national holiday in Japan.
Oceano Azul is currently using one of the two multi-purpose rooms in the Portuguese Pavilion, and one of the attractions has been a scientific expedition that the foundation coordinated in September to the Gorringe Bank.
“I’m from Sesimbra, and all the fishermen there know this area,” Sílvia Tavares explained to Lusa.
The project manager at Oceano Azul argued that Portugal brings to Expo knowledge to share on “how to create marine protected areas in a way that really works”.
Tavares highlighted the creation of the MPA network in the Azores, which “selected the most important [areas], gathered scientific information [and] brought everyone involved into a participatory process,” including fishermen.
Created by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Society in 2017, Oceano Azul is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, and which includes the Lisbon Oceanarium among its assets.
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