The 2016 Offshore Mariculture Conference technical visits will include visits to the Mercabarna Fish Market and IRTA, Research & Technology, Food & Agriculture, a multifunctional platform in aquaculture and aquatic ecosystems.

Please note that places for the Mercabarna Fish Market visit are limited to 30 and will be allocated strictly on a first come, first served, basis. Places on the IRTA visit are also limited to 60, again allocated on a first come first served basis.

Mercabarna Central Fish Market occupies around 24,000 m2, 48 wholesale companies operate from 80 points of sale equipped with handling rooms, where they can perform the tasks of removing the entrails and scales, spaces thermally adapted for selling frozen goods and 14 distribution points (stockpiler stalls). The Market sells around 78,000 tonnes of produce each year, some 81% of which is fresh.

IRTA is based in the heart of the Ebro Delta, owned by the Government of Catalonia and ascribed to the Department of Agriculture. The objective of IRTA is to carry out strategic research in aquaculture, facilitating its efficient transfer both to official agency bodies and the industry and to develop focused research in order to improve the knowledge and technology needed for increasing the number of species cultured and/or improve the existing processes, both from the production and from the food safety points of view. IRTA has more than 500 different culture tanks, 30 recirculation aquaculture systems (IRTAmar© technology) and it’s fish culture activities include: Reproduction, Larval rearing, nutrition and stock enhancement.

Target species: Gilthead sea bream, European sea bass, Senegalese sole, Meagre & trout. Mollusc culture: hatchery & nursery pilot culture in clams and oyster, also octopus culture.

Some of the research activities include: Reproduction research: chemical communication and spawning behaviour, endocrinology and control of fish reproduction, broodstock nutrition, genetic selection of cultured fish, cell biology of fish gametes, preservation of fish gametes and embryos, development and optimisation of fish larvae rearing protocols for new marine species, nutritional requirements and impact of nutrition of larval quality & health, RAS technology and adapted experimental design and training.

You can book your place online here.

For further information, contact the Events team on +44 1329 825335 or email conferences@offshoremariculture.com. Follow the event on Twitter @OMConference.