5th field campaign to Santo Antão

From October to December 2023, COAST Cabo Verde continued to work on different locations in Santo Antão Island, with the WP1, WP2 and WP3. The field campaign (like the others) was only possible to be achieved thanks to the local fishermen and the colaboration with the local community.

The WP3 (Facultat de Biologia UB, IRBio, CIIMAR / CIMAR Associate Laboratory, Universidade de Aveiro/CESAM - Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar) did their first campaign to Santo Antão and worked on the first assessment on coral biodiversity and start implementing pilot restoration protocols in some locations of the island. While doing this, we have also evaluated that bleaching of Milllepora is occuring along with mortality of Tubastrea.

During the first three weeks of November 2023, the WP2 did their first campaign. UBO - Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Universidade de Aveiro/CESAM - Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar and Underwater Experience started to investigate the ecosystem functioning of Santo Antão’s coastal habitats.

During the last week of November and the first of December - as part the WP1 and WP2 -, Frederic Swierczynski, Bruno Gaidan (Underwater Experience) and Teresa Amaro (Universidade de Aveiro/CESAM - Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar) continued to characterize benthic and pelagic biodiversity in target areas and in depths beyond 30 m.