The trainees arrived at Policoro on 1.12.1984, and after 4 days of general organization the activities started.
Due to language problems, during this first phase the trainees were divided into two groups, one French speaking, (11 trainees), the other English speading (9 trainees).
The activities at Policoro ended on 31.5.85, and the trainees left for a study tour until 16.6.85.
The trainees returned to their home countries on 17.6.85.
The didactic programme was applied according to the two lines programmed; table 1 sumarizes the general time table of the activities carried out by the trainers. Table 2 shows the main topics treated with the number of hours, divided in base and special programme.
A total of 669 hours were necessary for the special programme and 192 hours for the basis programme, with a ration of 77% and 23%
In this first course, a higher number of experts' intervention came towards the end of the course itself, as some delays in recruitments were experienced; this problem will be solved for next year, so that lessons of general information will be regularly distributed during the year.
Since its inception, the Training Centre has been collecting some copies of FAO papers which could be useful to the course purposes, and organized a library. The trainees could freely acceed to this papers, which could also be photocopied. Papers of which more copies were available were distributed to the trainees. The centre made over 40.000 photocopies, to face to trainees' need to have their own collection of technical papers.
The library contained also basic literature on Mediterranean aquaculture.
All the trainers wrote specific texts or brought some references left to the students to read. The course management found sometimes difficulties to obtain papers both in English and French. Efforts were undertaken to translate as many papers as possible.
The trainees wrote 15 didactic reports, relative to the newly acquired knowledge and summarized from the references available. At the end of the course, each trainee received a copy of all the reports written by his collegues in the various chapters of study, eventually enriched with original pictures taken during the most spectacular phases of work.
The next two courses will certainly benefit from the results obtained during this first phase, especially considering the lack of didactic papers available dealing with such a recent activity as Mediterranean aquaculture.
EXPERT'S INTERVENTIONS AT THE TRAINING CENTRE
| Dec. | Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May. | Jun. | Number | ||
| of days | |||||||||
| Director of Centre | * | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 186 |
| MEDRAP coordinetor | * | - | - | - | - | 10 | |||
| Didactic coordinetor | *** | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 27 |
| Aquac./fry collec./fisher.ex. | *** | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 182 |
| Hatchery senior expert | * | - | - | - | 48 | ||||
| Hatchery junior expert | * | - | - | - | 19 | ||||
| Phytoplancton expert | * | - | - | 25 | |||||
| Engineering expert | * | - | - | 19 | |||||
| Aquaculture expert | ** | - | 2 | ||||||
| Fish feed technology expert | ** | - | - | 9 | |||||
| Lagoon expert | ** | - | 2 | ||||||
| Basic biology expert | *** | - | 5 | ||||||
| Zoology expert | *** | - | 11 | ||||||
| Ecology expert | *** | - | - | 5 | |||||
| Fresh water aquaculture ex. | *** | - | 2 | ||||||
| Shell fish culture expert | *** | - | 2 | ||||||
| Shell fish culture expert | *** | - | 3 | ||||||
| Shrimp culture expert | *** | - | 2 | ||||||
| Shrimp culture junior expert | *** | - | 15 | ||||||
| Pathology expert | *** | - | 4 | ||||||
| MEDRAP staff member | * | ||||||||
| FAO | ** | ||||||||
| MEDRAP expert | *** | ||||||||
T A B L E 1
GENERAL TIME TABLE FOR ALL THE ACTIVITES CARRIED OUT DURING THE COURSE
| hours | ||||
| Basis | Special | Total | ||
| 1) | Phyto and zooplankton production, Artemia naupli production | 20 | 90 | 110 |
| 2) | Phyto and zooplankton cultures in eutrophised ponds | 2 | 6 | 8 |
| 3) | Artemia rearing | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 4) | Zooplankton collection from the wild | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 5) | Capture and selection of sea bass and sea bream brood stock | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 6) | Artificial reproduction | 3 | 6 | 9 |
| 7) | Egg collection and control | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 8) | Egg incubation and hatching | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| 9) | Larval rearing | 18 | 50 | 68 |
| 10) | Weaning and first rearing | 8 | 85 | 93 |
| 11) | Filters for water recycling | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| 12) | Capture, transport, counting, stocking and captured of the fry | 10 | 108 | 118 |
| 13) | Classification of the fry captured | 4 | 24 | 28 |
| 14) | Utilization of fishing gear | 8 | 50 | 59 |
| 15) | Fish barrier construction | 4 | 31 | 35 |
| 16) | Systematics and biometry of the species captured | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 17) | Intensive, semi-intensive, extensive and polyculture rearing of different species (sea bream, sea bass, mullets, eels, white bream, shrimp) | 28 | 80 | 108 |
| 18) | Mullet over wintering and first rearing | 2 | 12 | 14 |
| 19) | Rearing ponds management | 8 | 30 | 38 |
| 20) | Feeding techniques | 21 | 35 | 56 |
| 21) | Prophilaxis and curative treatments | 10 | 10 | 20 |
| 22) | Methods marketing of product | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| 23) | Shell-fish culture | 8 | 12 | 20 |
| 24) | Control of environmental parameters | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| 25) | Elementary Biology | 10 | ||
| 26) | Data analysis and file preparation | 11 | ||
| 192 | 669 | 861 | ||
T A B L E 2
