The programme aimed mainly at employees and professionals working for public administrations in South America and the Caribbean.
The Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM) will contribute to improve the management of aquatic resources in South America and the Caribbean thanks to a training programme led by the Institute itself that will provide tools to increase aquatic production in a sustainable way.
The aim of this programme, which involves several centres of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and Spanish and South American universities working in the aquaculture and fisheries field, is to train mainly employees and professionals from public administrations, but also researchers from universities and public research centres, and R&D personnel from the private sector in South America and the Caribbean through the knowledge and application of methods and protocols.
The programme, which has just begun and will end in 2022, is divided into five thematic courses that include subjects such as reproduction and biotechnology, genetics and genomics, sustainable fisheries, biology and crustaceans and molluscs farming, larviculture and auxiliary species, and nutrition and pathology.
"This programme highlights the great aquatic biodiversity of exploitable species in South America and the growth potential of their exploitation if managed sustainably", explains Francesc Piferrer, ICM researcher and the programme coordinator.
The first course focuses on the physiology of reproduction and the conservation of aquatic resources. During the course, practical information will be provided on stock management of brood fish, induction of spawning and artificial fertilisation, and the evaluation of gamete quality and control of sex ratio.
The programme, entitled "Improving aquaculture productivity and management through the use of diagnostic tools, management and selection programmes in native, wild or farmed species of South America and the Caribbean of ecological and commercial importance", is funded by the CSIC and the Intercoonecta programme of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.