On behalf of the Ente di Sviluppo Agricolo del Veneto (ESAV), Dr. ALESSANDRA addressed a warm welcome to the participants at the session, and gave a brief summary of the place that the ESAV holds in the development of aquaculture in the Venitian region :
This region is the most suitable region for aquaculture development, as there is an abundance of coastal lagoons and rivers found there. This geographical particularly led to the installation of a traditional aquacultural activity more than 1 000 years ago and which has since become the valliculture of to-day.
The importance of this sector led the ESAV to create a Regional Centre for the Development of Fishing and Aquaculture, of which Dr Alessandra is responsible, in charge of research, application and popularization in this sphere. This unit emerged from 3 Centres which already existed :
- The “Centro Ittiologico Valli Venete” (C.I.V.V.), in charge of the technical assistance to valliculture.
- The “Societa Industriale Reproduzione Artificiale Pesce” (S.I.R.A.P.), in charge of the controlled reproduction of marine fry species.
- The “Consorzio Sviluppo Pesca ed Aquaculture del Veneto” (Co S.P.A.V), in charge of the assistance to shellfishculture development.
To this can be added two freshwater Centres, One for the production of salmonidae juveniles, the other for Freshwater fishculture research, of cold and warm water ; The latter which can be considered the most important Centre in Europe, combines four departments : genetical, pathological, feed and environmental study.
Otherwise, ESAV, has contracts wit diverse research institutes in the region, and the overall results obtained in the past three years by these Centres or teams under contract have been published for distribution.
The ESAV has also formulated a development plan for aquaculture in the region (9 years), which is becoming a very important programmation instrument ; priority has been given to services, (research, engineering, development) to technical assistance and especially to training, one of the most important activities of the ESAV in the agricultural sphere.
