Field trip to HCMR research facilities

The Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) is a governmental research organization comprised of three Research Institutes: the Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture (IMBBC), the Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters (IMBRIW) and the Institute of Oceanography (IO).

HCMR is one of the partners in ClimeFish and responsible for one of our implementation case studies in the Mediterranean sea focusing on aquaculture in Greece, emphasizing on the European sea bass and the meagre. This case study is led by Nikos Papandroulakis, who is a Research Director at the IMBBC at HCMR.

Climate change is expected to affect greek aquaculture in different ways. From one side we expect higher growth rates due to the rise in temperature, from the other extreme weather events and increased frequency of diseases are anticipated. There are issues such as the ocean acidification, in which our knowledge is limited and basic research is required. Fish physiology, fish pathology, production technologies and husbandry practices are amongst some of the many topics studied at IMBBC. The HCMR has several research infrastructures, including indoor and outdoor aquaculture farming facilities, two aquariums and works toward a sustainable future. You can read more about the projects that IMBBC are involve in here.

In ClimeFish, growth and possibilities of sea bass farming will be evaluated from today until 2050 and results will end up in a Decision Support Framework.

At the second day of our Annual Meeting we were invited to the aquaculture research facilities of IMBBC, the so-called AquaLabs. We were lucky to get a guided tour led by Mr Panagiotis Anastasiadis, who is technical responsible of the facility and participates also in ClimeFish. We have visited the hatchery of the Institute (phytoplankton, zooplankton, larval rearing and pre-growing zone) and also the broostocks of the various species that are kept at the AquaLabs.

Below are some images from our visit to HCMR

Mr Panagiotis Anastasiadis explains us about sea bass production

Sea bass fry

A Mesocosm (semi extensive) larval rearing tank

Research tanks

Interested croud

Other species are also reared at HCMR, e.g. amberjack