Azores ecoregion – Ecosystem overview

For this overview, the Azores ecoregion corresponds to the Azores Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) inside ICES Subarea 10 (Figure 1). The ecoregion lies within a much larger open ocean ecosystem, and straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). The Azores is a Portuguese archipelago composed of nine islands with almost no geological continental shelf, and the Azores Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) includes 461 identified seamounts.