In this context, the waters off the Azores have only been controlled once since they were liberalised on 1 August 2004, in spite of the fact that many dozens of external vessels have been detected by the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) in this EEZ during that time, and that there have sometimes been two dozen at once.
El motivo por el que el VMS está funcionando tan mal se debe a una serie de derogaciones en zonas fundamentales y a que el sistema de control en alta mar sea tan inactivo e inefectivo.