In this new installation of the Ministry, seagrasses will be cultivated and seahorses and nacras will be raised to repopulate the Mar Menor
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco) has chosen Águilas to install the first production center for marine species in the Region. These are scientific facilities where threatened fauna and flora in the Mar Menor will be raised and cultivated for implantation in the lagoon, such as seahorses, nacras and the phanerogams ‘Cymodocea nodosa’ and ‘Cymodocea zostera’, although it is not ruled out the production of other species linked to different environmental restoration projects on the Mediterranean coast.
The third vice president and minister Teresa Ribera announced this Friday the installation of this new scientific infrastructure in the meeting she held with the riverside mayors, during her visit to the Region to report on the progress in the central government’s roadmap for the recovery of the Minor Sea.
The experimental production center for marine species has a budget of four million euros and will be located on a municipal plot of 6,900 meters in La Loma, next to the Rambla del Cañarete and near the desalination plant, which will supply water to the breeding. Construction is expected to begin this year and by 2023 there will be ready-to-plant marine plants in the Mar Menor.
The latest technological advances
Different lines of research will be integrated into this scientific facility and there will be the collaboration of both universities and research centers, such as the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO). “From the Ministry they have advanced that this center will be equipped with the latest technological advances and will have, among other equipment, a laboratory and tanks for the cultivation of marine species,” explained yesterday the mayor of Águilas, Mari Carmen Moreno.
The first mayor explains that «in recent months there have been numerous conversations with the Ministry in order for this center to have its location in Águilas; something that has finally materialized in the announcement made by the minister».
The marine species production center will depend on the General Directorate of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification, in collaboration with the General Directorate of the Coast and the Sea and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography-CSIC.
The municipalities of Torrevieja and Mazarrón were considered as possible locations before the final choice of Águilas.