AIM attended the latest edition of the Forum to find out about projects and new areas of work linked to the blue economy on La Palma.
On 5 June 2026, we attended the event at the Port of Tazacorte 7th Blue Economy Forum in La Palma, which this year is dedicated to innovation, knowledge and opportunities relating to lava deltas. From the Association for Research on Macaronesia (AIM) we attended the event to find out about some of the projects and initiatives currently being developed in this field.
During the morning, we heard about a number of quite different proposals. There was discussion of the future scientific services of the ‘Rogelio Herrera’ Biodiversity and Blue Economy Observatory, the use of real-time oceanographic data from Tazacorte and new tools for studying and monitoring the marine environment. We also discovered some applications that we at AIM were less familiar with. We were particularly struck by how citizen science and artificial intelligence are being used to identify species, as well as other initiatives such as the micro-reefs installed on quays and the monitoring of lava deltas.
The blue economy is a fairly broad field and there is still much we need to learn about it. This Forum gave us the opportunity to find out who is working on it here on La Palma and to learn about projects that we can now follow a little more closely.