Trip to the marine aquaculture station

This first week of class we have been studying marine organisms. Its a lot of information to learn in such a short amount of time but I think it is very interesting and I always want to learn more. After getting an introduction in class, we took a trip to the aquaculture station. There, we got to see all of the cultivated marine life. It is an experimental station used for research. They cultivate rotifers, artemia, molluscs, spider crabs, and fish. It was really incredible to see each stage of the cultivation. Every species must be handled very precisely and carefully at different periods in the lifecycle. They also take care to simulate as close of a natural environment as possible to ensure more accurate studies. We were lucky enough to take a boat out to see the cages where they keep the fish when they are fully grown. This was my favorite part of the excursion. The fish were much lager than I had expected! The station mainly does studies for commercial benefits, but they also do many other studies such as monitoring reproduction, diseases, and behaviors.

A spider crab common to the Mediterranean 

Fish cages for the matured fish

- Victoria S.