This ICTS, belonging to the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, is a research infrastructure, consisting of marine aquaculture facilities located in the region of Murcia, dedicated to developing techniques for the reproduction of bluefin tuna in captivity and the production of juvenile bluefin tuna.
This infrastructure has the following facilities for the reproduction, incubation, rearing of larvae and weaning and pre-fattening of bluefin tuna:
Installation for reproduction control: four tanks with a total volume of about 7000 m3; two tanks of 20 and 22 m3 in diameter and 10 m deep, with capacity to maintain about 30 tunas each of approximately 60 kg of initial weight, and another two of 14 m and 8 m in diameter.The installation has the possibility to control the photoperiod and the temperature.
Egg incubation unit:12 tanks of 500 l capacity and 50 tanks of 100 l with control of light and temperature.
Breeding unit:7 tanks of 5000 l and 18 of 1000 l, two experimental modules with a total of 39 circular tanks of 170 l; the mesocosm unit for the breeding of larvae consists of two tanks of 45 000 l and the plant breeding facility of phytoplankton, rotifers, artemia and copepods.All tanks are provided with water treatment systems and the experimental units are also provided with recirculation systems.
Weaning installation: a cylindrical tank of 100 000 l, four of 50 000 l and another four of 20 000 l with associated recirculation and water treatment system.
