Tavira Experimental Molusciculture Station (EEMT) is located in the Ria Formosa Natural Park, in Vale de Caranguejo, in front of Forte do Rato. EEMT is a research unit of the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere – IPMA, I.P., in two fundamental areas:

• bivalves production (clams, oysters, among others);
• marine geosciences.

In the aquaculture area, research activities are the following:

• Nutrition
  • Identification of nutrition needs
  • Development of diets
• Reproduction
  • Manipulation of the reproductive cycle
  • Establishment of quality indexes
• Zootechnics
  • Knowledge and manipulation of the gametogenic cycle
  • Conducting environment-aquaculture interaction studies

The area of ​​marine geosciences includes essentially the following research areas:

• coastal geology and support for coastal management;
• study of holocenic paleoenvironments (the last 10,000 years) based on estuarine and marine cores;
• evidence of tsunamis in the continental shelf sedimentary record.

Scientific research is funded by several projects under national and international programs. EEMT plays an important role with local and regional communities by transferring technology to the mollusk farming sector and supporting companies (start-ups). It is strongly involved in the promotion and dynamization of marine science activities with schools and the general public and also collaborates in scientific and technical training at both professional and university levels.

Find out more about EEMT here.