Pedro Vélez-Belchí holds a PhD from the university of the Balearic Islands, and since 2007 is physical oceanographer at the Spanish Oceanographic Institute, in the Canary Islands station. His research activity ranges from the interaction between the western boundary currents and mesoscale activity to the decadal variability in the eastern Atlantic or the impact of environmental factors on the spawning grounds of large pelagic. He is the coordinator of the IEO ocean observing system in the Canary Islands, established in 2007 in order to monitor the long-term changes, and understand its causes, of the eastern margin of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. He has authored more than thirty-five scientific articles, having participated and/or coordinated several national and international research projects and a large number of oceanographic cruises. Currently he is member of the Argo Steering Team and National Coordinator of the Spanish contribution to the Argo program. He has been a guest researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (USA), and for two years (2010- 2012) Marie Curie researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (USA).