AMP is the most recent effort towards establishing a Portuguese legal entity for consolidating and creating a coherent Azorean network of offshore marine protected areas (MPAs). With intensifying efforts to protect biodiversity, an increase in offshore Azorean MPAs is likely. Consequently, the AMP will likely extend its spatial limit to include new high seas MPAs and develop legally binding regulations for each new MPA as an on-going process. The full-scale “one-stop agency” AMP is envisioned to provide a representative offshore MPA network for the Azores that will protect all major ecosystem features in relation to their habitats and species, at an appropriate scale, within and across each bioregion. creating a coherent Azorean network of offshore marine protected areas (MPAs).