The greatest victories in conservation are rarely sudden. They are measured not in headlines but in patience; not in isolated discoveries but in years of quiet observation, scientific rigor, community trust, and the unwavering belief that every living creature deserves a future. Such is the story of the COSTA Project—Consolidating Sea Turtle Conservation in the Azores—a decade-long endeavor that has now received one of Europe’s most prestigious recognitions for environmental outreach.
Developed by the OKEANOS Institute for Marine Sciences at the University of the Azores, the project was awarded First Place in the Outreach & Awareness category of the 2026 Greening Awards Initiative, a European distinction recognizing sustainability initiatives undertaken by organizations involved in coast guard functions across the continent. The award, presented during the Annual European Coast Guard Event hosted by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) on São Miguel Island, celebrates not only scientific excellence but the ability to transform research into public understanding and collective action.
In many ways, this recognition belongs as much to the people of the Azores as it does to the scientists who lead the project.
For more than a decade, COSTA has quietly built one of the Atlantic’s most comprehensive efforts to understand and protect sea turtles, species that have crossed the world’s oceans for millions of years yet now face unprecedented pressures from climate change, pollution, habitat degradation, and accidental interactions with fisheries. The waters surrounding the Azores occupy a critical position within the migratory routes of several sea turtle species, making the archipelago both a sanctuary and a living laboratory for international marine conservation.
But COSTA has never been simply about studying turtles.
Its true achievement has been its ability to weave together science, education, public policy, local communities, and the maritime economy into a single, collaborative vision. It demonstrates that conservation succeeds not when it isolates itself within academic institutions but when knowledge travels outward—to fishermen, schoolchildren, whale-watching operators, policymakers, and ordinary citizens who become active participants in protecting the ocean they call home.
At the heart of the project lies an impressive scientific program. Through systematically collected data aboard Portugal’s industrial longline fishing fleet, trained fisheries observers document accidental turtle captures, demographic trends, biological characteristics, and interactions between marine wildlife and commercial fisheries. These observations provide essential evidence that allows resource managers to make informed decisions grounded in science rather than assumption.
Equally important, however, is the project’s relationship with the fishing community itself.
Rather than viewing fishermen as adversaries, COSTA has embraced them as indispensable partners in conservation. Through specialized training in the safe handling and release of accidentally captured turtles, the project has fostered a culture in which economic activity and environmental responsibility are no longer seen as competing objectives but as complementary responsibilities. This collaborative philosophy has become one of the defining strengths of marine conservation in the Azores, demonstrating that lasting environmental progress depends upon trust as much as regulation.
Education has become another cornerstone of COSTA’s remarkable success.
During 2024 alone, the Observatory of the Sea of the Azores (OMA) conducted forty-five educational sessions reaching nearly one thousand children between the ages of three and thirteen. These encounters introduced young Azoreans to the extraordinary lives of sea turtles, helping them understand the fragile ecosystems that surround their islands and inspiring a new generation to view the ocean not merely as a resource to exploit but as a living world to protect.
Such efforts represent investments whose true returns may only become visible decades from now, when today’s children become tomorrow’s scientists, educators, policymakers, or simply citizens who make more thoughtful choices because they once encountered a sea turtle through a classroom lesson or a day by the sea.
The project’s commitment to public engagement extends well beyond schools.
One of COSTA’s most innovative components has been its partnership with the Azorean whale-watching industry. Twelve whale-watching companies operating across five islands have joined the initiative, transforming commercial excursions into opportunities for environmental education. Visitors are introduced to ongoing scientific research while witnessing turtle-tagging operations that connect them directly to conservation in action. Hundreds of sea turtles have now been tagged through these collaborative efforts, allowing researchers to better understand migration routes, behavior, and population dynamics throughout the North Atlantic.
In this way, tourism itself becomes an instrument of conservation rather than merely an observer of nature.
The project is equally remarkable for the breadth of its partnerships. Alongside OKEANOS, COSTA brings together the Regional Directorate for Maritime Policies of the Government of the Azores, the Observatory of the Sea of the Azores, Flying Sharks, the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, the Regional Directorate for Fisheries, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research, numerous fishing vessel owners, and an extensive network of national and international collaborators.
Such cooperation illustrates one of the defining characteristics of modern environmental stewardship: no single institution can protect the ocean alone. Conservation is, by necessity, a shared endeavor that crosses disciplines, governments, industries, and even national borders.
The European recognition awarded to COSTA therefore honors far more than one successful project. It acknowledges an entire philosophy of environmental leadership that has taken root in the Azores—a philosophy grounded in collaboration, scientific excellence, and public participation.
The islands have long understood that life is inseparable from the Atlantic. The sea has fed communities, carried emigrants across oceans, connected continents, shaped economies, and inspired generations of poets, sailors, and scientists. Yet the Atlantic also asks something in return: stewardship.
Projects like COSTA remind us that conservation is not an obstacle to development but one of its essential foundations. Healthy oceans sustain fisheries, tourism, biodiversity, scientific discovery, and the cultural identity of island communities whose histories have always been written against the horizon of the sea.
As climate change, marine pollution, and increasing human activity place new pressures upon ocean ecosystems, the work being carried out in the Azores becomes ever more significant—not only for Portugal or Europe, but for the global Atlantic community.
Perhaps the greatest lesson of COSTA is that meaningful conservation begins not with grand declarations but with consistent commitment: one observation recorded, one turtle safely released, one fisherman trained, one classroom inspired, one partnership strengthened, one generation teaching the next that the future of the ocean ultimately depends upon the choices we make on land.
The sea turtles that glide silently through Azorean waters have survived for more than one hundred million years. They have witnessed changing continents, shifting oceans, and the rise and fall of civilizations. Thanks to projects like COSTA—and to the people whose dedication has sustained it—they may continue their ancient journeys for generations yet to come, carrying with them a powerful reminder that the health of the Atlantic remains inseparable from our own.
Based on a story in Correio dos Açores-Natalino Viveiros, director. Photos also from Correio dos Açores.