The project's main actions included:

• Communicating the AMPIC and demonstrating its ecological and cultural values to the public and local communities, as well as the need to protect them; and involving the communities in this communication.
• Conducting a survey of its natural, socioeconomic, and cultural values to support communication, but also to serve as a reference situation for future monitoring to determine if the AMPIC is meeting its intended objectives.

Tasks and achieved results:

• Task 1 – AMPIC Communication: This task involved the development of the following products:
  • Communication plan for the project, project logo (and adaptation for the Algarve Reef), stationery, image bank, content management, creation of a landing page with all developed content and products (www.ampiccomprojeto.pt), creation of social media and their content (www.instagram.com/ampic.com.projeto; www.facebook.com/ampic.com.projeto; www.twitter.com/ampic_com), media outreach, photography exhibition with a professional photographer, launch of a photography contest, graphic design for outdoor communication/urban space intervention (e.g., proposal for billboards), postcard book (photographs), brochures and posters (e.g., roll-ups), proposal for various merchandise products, promotional videos, children's book, reports.
• Task 2 – Biodiversity Reference Situation: To carry out the survey of natural values in the different future protection zones (i.e., with different rules and permitted uses) and to enable effective future monitoring through comparison with the reference situation (before protection), the following tasks were carried out:
  • Underwater visual censuses using transects and quadrats for sampling fish (demersal and benthic; counts and measurements), macro-invertebrates, and algae (26 days of sampling and 24 sampled locations in two seasons);
  • Static visual censuses with baited stereo cameras for sampling demersal fish (counts and measurements; 13 days of sampling and 25 sampled locations in two seasons).
• Task 3 – Commercial Fishing Reference Situation: To characterize commercial fishing in the different future protection zones (i.e., with different rules and permitted uses) and to enable effective future monitoring through comparison with the reference situation (before protection), the following tasks were carried out:
  • Commercial fishing censuses to characterize fishing effort and its distribution throughout the future park (26 days of censuses in total, including various daily transects to cover the park's zones, where the positions of all observed vessels, their typology, and fishing gear were recorded);
  • Experimental fishing with traps, trammel nets, and longlines to characterize catches with these gear types in different future protection zones (a total of 39 days of embarkation with local fishermen);
  • In-person questionnaires to characterize commercial fishing along the coast of the future AMPIC and adjacent areas (99 questionnaires were conducted in total over 39 days of sampling). In addition to characterizing the socioeconomic patterns of fishing, questions were also asked about the spatiotemporal composition of catches, as well as fishermen's perceptions and expectations regarding the future park.
• Task 4 – Recreational Fishing Reference Situation: To characterize recreational fishing in the different future protection zones (i.e., with different rules and permitted uses) and to enable effective future monitoring through comparison with the reference situation (before protection), the following tasks were carried out:
  • Recreational fishing censuses with instant counts to characterize fishing effort and its distribution throughout the future park (27 days of sampling, with various transects conducted in the morning and afternoon);
  • Experimental fishing with lines to characterize catch composition in different future protection zones (6 days of sampling in total, including two seasons);
  • In-person questionnaires to characterize recreational fishing in the future park area as well as catches (60 days of sampling, with a total of 239 questionnaires for shore fishing and 146 for boat fishing).

All the information collected was stored in CCMAR databases and is available to integrate future monitoring processes of the Parque Marinho do Recife do Algarve - Pedra do Valado. It is also summarized in a final report and on the project's website.