The Regional Secretariat for the Sea and Fisheries announced yesterday that Portugal’s proposal to adopt the Cagarro (Calonectris borealis) as a common bioindicator of floating plastic pollution in Region V (Wider Atlantic) has been officially approved.

According to a statement from the regional secretariat, this decision was taken at the ministerial meeting of the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR), held in Vigo last week.

This proposal was led by the Regional Government, through the Regional Secretariat for the Sea and Fisheries – Regional Directorate for Maritime Policy, with scientific support from Yasmina Rodríguez and Christopher Pham, researchers at the OKEANOS Institute for Marine Science Research (University of the Azores).

The idea arose following the launch of a monitoring program in 2015, based on the citizen science campaign “SOS Cagarro.”

“This new indicator assesses the quantity, composition, and trends of plastic ingested by juvenile Cory’s shearwaters found dead during the nesting period. In this way, it complements existing OSPAR mechanisms for marine litter, especially in a region where the Fulmarglacialis species, used in other areas as a bioindicator, does not occur,” explains the Regional Secretariat for the Sea.

The Regional Government body adds that an environmental assessment threshold has been proposed and approved: at most, 20% of the juveniles analyzed should contain more than four plastic particles in their stomachs, based on a minimum sample of 200 birds over five consecutive years.

“It is now expected that the ministerial meeting will reaffirm the political commitment to the implementation of this new indicator, strengthening regional collaboration and contributing to the objectives of the Northeast Atlantic Environmental Strategy 2030 (NEAES 2030),” the regional secretariat said.

According to the same statement, OSPAR “is the main instrument for regional cooperation for the preservation of the ocean in this vast area.”

“The 2025 ministerial meeting, under the theme of assessment and ambition, was a strategic moment where countries reaffirmed their commitment to NEAES 2030 and defined concrete actions to address climate and biodiversity challenges.In this context, the approval of the Cory’s shearwater as a common bioindicator is not only a scientific and technical achievement, but also represents a concrete contribution to a cooperative governance model, where the Azores can join forces with other areas of Macaronesia, namely Madeira and the Canary Islands, for effective monitoring of plastic pollution in one of the most biodiverse regions of the Atlantic,” it is highlighted.

In Diário Insular – José Lourenço-director

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