Regional Government identifies measures to tackle algal blooms at Madalena Port, Pico Island - Communication

Secretaria Regional do Turismo, Mobilidade e Infraestruturas

The Regional Secretariat for Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructures informs that several complementary efforts are being made to mitigate the current situation arising from algal blooms at the Madalena Port, Pico Island, and to find a structural solution to these events.

Berta Cabral stated that "a machine purchased by the Regional Port Authorities will arrive in Pico at the end of the month to mitigate the algae blooms.

"This machine will be promptly made available to the Madalena Town Council and the work will begin immediately afterwards, as already agreed institutionally," she added.

This mitigation work is being planned in accordance with the "Study of marine macroalgae blooms at the Madalena Port - Pico (Characterisation and Prediction of Probability of Occurrence)," conducted in 2019.

"We will proceed in the coming weeks with a technical analysis to define a structural solution to this problem, particularly with regard to changing the pattern of water circulation within the port," she said.

In the first phase, this work will be carried out in collaboration with LREC - Regional Civil Engineering Laboratory and Professor António Trigo Teixeira, an expert in Hydraulics and Water Resources and lecturer at the Instituto Superior Técnico (School of Engineering), and subsequently with LNEC - National Civil Engineering Laboratory.