The OURIÇAQUA project aims to the development of technologies and methodologies for the cultivation of a new marine species, the sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus), whose production in aquaculture is still reduced in the international panorama and non-existent in Portugal.

It is intended to develop farming techniques for the optimization of the various stages of production: crop and acclimatization of broodstock, as well as improving their reproductive capability, spawning induction, larval development, fixing and fattening of juveniles. The need and interest of production of this species due to the high ommercial value and increasing demand at the international market. Due to this fact, the increase in the fishing effort in many industrial cases and directed, associated with biological and ecological factors of the species has led to instability of the stocks and the annual recruitment, with the decrease in abundance and biomass of this resource. The knowledge that if they wish to develop in the course of this project will be transferred to the productive sector, being expected with this new production the dynamization of the sector and of the regional and national economy, creating a new business with high export potential, commercially profitable and environmentally sustainable, minimizing the dependence of collecting bodies in a wild environment, which is not the case here.