Open day at CCMar (February 18th, 2016)

Two weeks ago (February 18th, 2016), it was celebrated the ”Dia Aberto do CCMAR”. We received 122 students from different High Schools. CCMAR showed some of the research lines developed in the last years, including genomics, climate change, zebra fish as model species, ecology of Ria Formosa (S Portugal), etc.

MARESMA team was represented there, showing the ecological importance of sea cucumbers in marine habitats and their potential as fishery resource, stressing a need of a regulation for catches. An aquarium was mounted harbouring specimens from two Holothuria species, occurring on Ria Formosa: Holothuria arguinensis and H. mammata. This allowed us to explain to students, the morphological characteristics of species and ecological differences.

We also showed different types of ossicles used for taxonomical identification on sea cucumbers. Different posters provided information about the fishery problematic in European waters and the development of aquaculture biotechnology for some Portuguese sea cucumber species done by MARESMA team.

Dia Aberto in CCMAR, February 18th, 2016

Mercedes Wangüemert explained the morphological differences between sea cucumber species inhabiting Ria Formosa (S Portugal)

Students were very interested about knowing research topics in CCMAR