Fisheries research, monitoring, and conservation
FIS
By Analia Murias
July 5, 2012
The use of cod bones to obtain a material for human bone replacement is one of the studies developed by the Marine Resource Assessment Multipolar Centre as part of Iberomare project presented this week in Matosinhos.
According to Rui Reis, director of 3B’s Research Group, this centre aims to be “an active agent in the pursuit of alternative assessment of marine resources and by-products of the fishing industry, aquaculture and food (fish and seaweed processing)” to be used in the food, cosmetic, biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors, among others.
Noting that the Centre’s mission is to help develop “high added value products” extracted from marine resources, Reis said that through this public presentation it is expected “to make people aware of the work that has been developed” so that “more companies can know and seek solutions here” for their problems, the agency Lusa reported.
For example, he explained that the oil from fish viscera can produce a product for the medical industry.
In addition, he mentioned that they are working on developing a “new food formula” for farmed sole with the intention of controlling its fat.
The initiators of Iberomare project, in which institutions from northern Portugal and from Galicia participate, hope “to obtain new materials of marine origin and to develop new uses of those materials.”
The initiative has the support of EU funds through Portugal/Spain Cross-Border Cooperation Programme (POCTEP) and it is coordinated through the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development of the North (CCDRN).
For CCDRN Vice President, Carlos Neves, Portugal needs to “extract value from the installed capacity” and must “turn those endogenous resources (from the sea) into money.”
The University of Minho, the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (Ciimar), the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), the Catholic School of Biotechnology, the Technology Centre of the Sea (Cetmar) of Vigo, Vigo University, the University of Santiago de Compostela, the Ministry for Rural and Marine Affairs, and the Institute of Marine Research in Vigo (IIM-CSIC) will also collaborate in this project.
