AQUACULTURE
"Barnacles" project
Project full title: "Barnacles"
Start date: 2011
Conclusion date: 2013
Partners: IMAR; Department of Oceanography and Fisheries of the University of the Azores; Regional Undersecretary for Fisheries' Office
Description: This project, co-financed by SRAM through the Regional Undersecretary for Fisheries' Office, under the regional decree Nº. 47/2010, has the following main objectives: to implement a small experimental unit on land that will allow the development of a M. azoricuslarval farm preliminary protocol and pre-fattening; test and evaluate economical and technical viability of certain materials as settlement substrate, as well as the M. azoricussettlement and harvest effect; to study, through an experimental system placed in the vicinity of a wild population, the inter-annual variation in the natural recruitment of M. azoricus; to genetically characterize various aggregations of M. azoricus existing around the island of Faial, in order to understand their population structure.
"MEGATEC" project
Project full title: "MEGATEC - Technological development and site analysis for the cultivation of Megabalanus azoricus“
Start date: 2011
Conclusion date: 2013
Partners: Department of Oceanography and Fisheries of the University of the Azores
Description: This project is the sequel of PEPCA I, which aims to test new technologies for offshore production of barnacles (Megabalanus azoricus), with emphasis on production structures, settlement substrates and harvesting technologies, as well as finding the best spots to install a future production unit.
"Commercial Sea Urchins" project
Project full title: “Development of the commercial potential of the sea urchins Sphaerechinus granularis and Paracentrotus lividus species”
Start date: August 2009
Conclusion date: April 2011
Partners: Department of Oceanography and Fisheries of the University of the Azores; Gourmet marine, Lda.; Canarian Institute of Marine Sciences; Regional Directorate for Science, Technology and Communications of the Azores
Description: This project, co-financed under the PRICE program, aims to assess, through various sampling processes, the exploitation potential of the natural stocks of two species of echinoids found in the Azores and how these resources can be sustainably exploited, while respecting the marine resources exploit main community rules.
"Azorean Sea Urchins" project
Project full title: "Assessment of the commercial potential of two species of sea urchins, Sphaerechinus granularis and Paracentrotus lividus, on the island of Faial - Azores"
Start date: August 2008
Conclusion date: July 2009
Partners: Department of Oceanography and Fisheries of the University of the Azores; Regional Directorate for the Support of Investment and Competitiveness
Description: Project supported under the Empreende Jovem program, which included a senior technician to study the economic and technical viability of exploiting two Azorean sea urchins species by assessing their populations (spatial location, densities by size classes, accessibility); determination of the gonad quality (IGS, color, granularity, texture and firmness); analyzing the main markets for the species under study and defining the best aquaculture/fishing methods that promote the valorization and management of the final product in a sustainable manner.
"Barnacles Experiment" project
Project full title: "Experimental Project of Barnacles' Production in Aquaculture - I"
Start date: January 2008
Conclusion date: October 2009
Partners: Department of Oceanography and Fisheries of the University of the Azores; Regional Directorate for Fisheries of the Azores; University of Los Lagos, Chile
Description: This project represented the start of aquaculture in the Azores, with the study of the technical and economic viability of the exploitation of M. azoricus through the design, construction and consequent monitoring of a Settlement Artificial Structure and, at the biological level, the study of the influence of conspecifics on M. azoricus settlement and development, as well as the influence of the structure surface texture in the larval settlement.
"Aquaculture in the Azores" project
Project full title: "Aquaculture in the Azores - An economic and biological analysis of the fish production viability through aquaculture in the Azores"
Start date: January 2007
Conclusion date: June 2007
Partners: Regional Directorate for Support to the Economic Cohesion of the Azores
Description: Project supported under the Empreende Jovem program, with the following main goals: identification of native species with potential for aquaculture production, study of the best production technics/systems to be applied in the Azorean reality and characterize the European market for these products in order to know how the Azorean products can be competitive in it.