IMARES' new facility is located on the shore of the Eastern Schelde in Yerseke, the location where research, education and industry active in the field of aquaculture work together on innovations, national and international.

This state of the art facility is supplied with sea water through a pipe line, delivering high quality water to the site. Intake water is mechanically filtered, skimmed and treated with ozone, and if required with UV. The new facility consists of two research halls, each with its own recirculation systems, one technical support hall for water treatment, one for climate control and a water analytical lab. Part of the facility consists of a site for outdoor experiments directly at the shoreline. This allows research with sea-water, fresh-water, flow-through, and recirculation systems in controlled climates and outdoor's exposed to seasonal influences. One advantage of the new facility is that is allows to work in heated and chilled recirculation and flow-through systems under controlled temperatures from 5 to 35 oC all year round. One of the research halls is dedicated to sole (Solea solea) reproduction and nursery.

The aquaculture department of IMARES uses these facilities to study the effects of interaction between fish and culture system, fish welfare, reproduction and nursery of various fish species, nutrition, sustainable aquaculture practices, shellfish reproduction, nursery and nutrition requirements, algae production, as well as the production of other invertebrates, such as ragworms. IMARES implements many of these research projects as an active partner within a wide international network and often in close collaboration with the aquaculture industry.

Through its modular construction and setup, which permits setups varying from small scale aquaria to circular tanks with a diameter of 3 meters and raceways on pilot scale level, highest flexibility and optimal experimental design are guaranteed.

The new facility completes the research options of IMARES. Next to climate rooms and different analytical laboratories in Yerseke, IMARES has meso-cosmos installation and analytical laboratories and sea- and fresh water aquaculture installations available at its other research sides in Den Helder and IJmuiden.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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