The 5th Technical Workshop and the Final Meeting of the Mistic Seas III project occurred on the 03rd August. Both events took place via telematics, due to the situation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 5th Technical Workshop was attended by all project partners, as well as by members of the advisory board, and aimed to present and discuss a general review of the project implementation, developments, results obtained, and the main pending issues.
The works were opened by Fundación Biodiversidad (organising partner of the event), the agenda was presented, and the participants in order of intervention were: the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), which summarised the different tasks included in the work package 1; the Direção Regional dos Assuntos dos Mar dos Açores (DRAM), which presented the status of the deliverables corresponding to work package 2; the Advisory Board, shared their approval on the use of the indicators and congratulated colleagues for the work done under the work package 2; the Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO) who summarised the tasks, deliverables and objectives of work package 3; the Direção Regional do Mar de Madeira (DRM), who presented work package 4, and the next steps in deliverable 4. 2, and finally the Fundo Regional para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FRCT), the project coordinator, who shared the project overview and the status of outstanding tasks and deliverables.
On the other hand, during the Final Meeting of Mistic Seas III, which was also attended by all partners, the welcome to the attendees and the presentation of the agenda of this last meeting was done by FRCT, the coordinator partner, who summarised the implementation of all the actions, the evolution of the work, the results and the final steps of the project.
The presentation of the work packages began with the intervention of the Fundación Biodiversidad, which presented the work package on communication and dissemination (WP5), detailing the tasks and materials that were carried out since 2019, the year in which the project began, such as newsletters, infographics and other dissemination materials, until the present day.
The FRCT presented the work package on coordination and management (WP6), where they explained how the management had been developed, gave an overview and presented the guidelines for the technical and financial reports of the project.
The last intervention was done by CSIC, in which was presented the Project Coordinated Cetacean Assessment, Monitoring and Management Strategy in the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coast sub-region (CetAMBICion), whichincludes partners from Spain, Portugal and France, to promote synergies in between the 2 projects through the sharing of knowledge and experience..
To close this meeting, a round table was held, in which all the partners were able to share their impressions and global opinions regarding the Mistic Seas III project. The added difficulty of carrying out a project of this magnitude in the framework of a pandemic such as that of COVID-19 was highlighted, as well as a general thanks for the support of all the members, entities and institutions.
