Introduction

The Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, I.P. (IPMA) is a Public Research Institution devoted to Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and Technology, established in 2012, with the merge of the Institute of Meteorology (IM), the Institute for Fisheries and Marine Research (IPIMAR) and the Marine Geology Unit of the National Laboratory for Energy and Geology. IMPA’s mission is the provision of technical and scientific support for the definition of national policy, operating and maintaining scientific infrastructures, data acquisition and processing, maintenance of national scientific databases on its areas of competence, and promotion and coordination of scientific research and technological development in its areas of expertise.

IPMA’s Aquaculture Research Station (EPPO) is marine core facility (Fig. 1) for research and technological development on aquaculture and biology, intended to carry out production studies at every scale from bench-top laboratory work to a much larger semi-industrial level. This facility has several collaborations with universities and private companies, by hosting experiments and/or providing biological material. It also provides scientific and technological knowledge transfer to farmers and training.

IPMA Aquaculture Research Station (EPPO)

Infrastructure: : IPMA Aquaculture Research Station (EPPO)

Location: Olhão, PORTUGAL

Web site address: https://www.ipma.pt/pt/pescas/eppo/

Contact: Pedro Pousão-Ferreira (pedro.pousao@ipma.pt)

Facilities

IPMA’s aquaculture research station (EPPO) occupies an area of 7 ha in the Natural Park of Ria Formosa, in Olhão (Portugal), and natural seawater within this facility is collected from the Ria Formosa lagoon. EPPO research group has more than 30 years’ experience on marine fish aquaculture, mainly on broodstock management, marine fish larvae rearing, fish feeding and nutrition, fish physiology and pathology. More recently other research areas at EPPO, focuses on the sustainability of aquaculture production, studying the potential of new species, on the identification quality and welfare biomarkers and on the optimization of environmentally friendly production systems. This facility holds breeders of different fish species, namely Argyrosomus regius, Sparus aurata, Sardina pilchardus, several Diplodus sp, Solea senegalensis, Dicentrarchus labrax, Seriola rivoliana, Epinephelus marginatus. This facility has more than 260 tanks (indoor and outdoor), and earthen ponds (17), these last being used with different production systems (monoculture, polyculture and integrated multitrophic aquaculture). Facility has different tank volumes and circulation that allows to adapt to different experimental conditions, and technical capacity to manipulate water physical-parameters salinity, temperature, and oxygen levels. Controlled photoperiod and water physico-chemical parameters automatically monitored. Apart from wet laboratories, analytical laboratories on biochemistry, fish pathology and molecular biology, provide and integrated and multidisciplinary research approach.