Closely linked to the International Food Forum (Alimentaria 2010), AZTI- Tecnalia's Food Research Unit will be present at the 7th edition of Innoval, where it will be reinforcing its commitment to R+D+innovation and will be setting itself up as a meeting point between brands and innovation.

Innoval is the Food Innovation show: an accurate barometer for the international agri-food industry which will be bringing together exhibitors, purchasers, opinion leaders and the media.

Over 62,000 purchasers visited the previous edition of Innoval, which in the course of Alimentaria 2010 will be located in the hall of Pavilion 3 and will be recreating all the aspects linked to the buying experience through a range of hubs.

Alimentaria 2010

This show will run from 22 to 26 March at the Gran Vía de Fira exhibition site in Barcelona. According to the latest forecasts, Alimentaria is expected to bring together nearly 4,000 companies, 1,200 of which are international ones; they will be occupying 94,500 m2 of exhibition space, which is expected to be visited by 150,000 professionals, with 33,000 of them coming from abroad. With these figures the event is consolidated as one of the main food and beverage fairs worldwide.

Further information: http://www.alimentaria-bcn.com

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4 February 2010. The Aquarium of Donostia-San Sebastian yesterday welcomed the twenty students participating in the fourth edition of the European Master in Marine Environment and Resources. Although the programme started last September and lasts 12 months, yesterday saw the start of the part that the students will be doing in the Aquarium where they will be until 13 February. The course is being given by the AZTI-Tecnalia technology centre and the Universities of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Southampton and Bordeaux 1. Contamination and health of the ocean, climate change, fisheries and other marine resources, biodiversity conservation, or coast management with the consequences of harbour and beach dredging are some of the subjects and questions that will be prominent in the training programme of this edition. Twenty students from the Basque Country, Valencia, France –and its département of Guadalupe in the French Antilles–, Italy and Ecuador have enrolled on this course that will go on for ten days in the capital of Gipuzkoa; the students will be attending classes given by 27 scientists and researchers from all over the world.

The Master’s programme –which will be given in English– began last September in Bordeaux with a first semester of general instruction in oceanography and marine environment, shared between the School of Ocean and Earth Science of the University of Southampton, and the Marine Station at Arcachon of the University of Bordeaux. Now it will continue until the summer in Donostia where it will be made up of more specific questions both at the Science and Technology Faculty of the UPV/EHU and at AZTI-Tecnalia. The third semester will be held in Southampton, under the auspices of the National Oceanographic Centre (NOC) in the UK and its facilities and scientific vessels. That is where the students will gain a global perspective of the marine environment and its resources.

While in Donostia a series of seminars will be held, and pieces of research work produced by previous students will be made known. The course in the capital of Gipuzkoa will end on February 13 with a cinema forum open to the public and which will be showing “The Old Man and the Sea” in its original version; it will include a debate on the Basques’ link with the marine environment.

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AZTI-Tecnalia has been working within the framework of the European INDICANG (INTERREG programme) project, coordinated by the French IFREMER institute, on the drawing up of a methodological guide for the study of the European eel. The goal of the project was to provide knowledge, criteria and methods for their application to the management of the species. Participating in the project were institutions representative of the main regions and hydrographical basins along the south Atlantic coastal areas of Europe. The project was undertaken between 2004 and 2007.

In the case of the Basque Country the participating bodies were AZTI-Tecnalia (with part funding by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Basque Government), the environmental consultancy Ekolur and the Gipuzkoa Provincial Government. As a pilot river basin the river Oria was chosen, given its tradition of eel fishing, its infrastructure for the control and sampling of environmental variables and for the abundant information existing about this basin. Over the three years of the project, fishermen, researchers and local government put their common experience and knowledge together as regards the species and its medium.

The guide describes the general biology of the species, its physiological, ecological and etological characteristics and outlines the principal anthropogenic pressures it is currently undergoing. The AZTI-Tecnalia researchers, apart from providing information about the Oria river basin, in order to illustrate the guide, has also contributed to editing two of the chapters. The original, French version of the guide went on sale in book format in 2008 (L'anguille européenne. Indicateurs d'abondance et de colonisation. A. Gilles, E. Feunteun, P. , C., Rigaud Christian Ed Quae); now a Spanish translation has come out and which can be downloaded freely here: www.ifremer.fr/indicang/version_espagnole/actualidad.htm

In October 2007 the European Council of Ministers adopted a number of measures for the recovery of the European eel population (EC Reg. 1100/2007). This Regulation obliged all member states to draw up their management plans for the species, presented in December 2008. This guide turns out to be of great use in the implementation of plans for recovery of the species, with its series of descriptors and indicators that enable an evaluation of the situation of the species and the effect of the measures put in place within the remit of these species management plans.

The European eel population (Anguilla anguilla) has undergone an intense decline over the past 25 years. In 2002, the Working Group on Eels (WGEEL) of the ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, a body that provides scientific knowledge and advice about the marine environment) found that the species was beyond its biological safety limits and fishing thereof was not sustainable. This is the context in which the European INDICANG project arose.

Translation: Basque Research

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Donostia-San Sebastian, 29 January 2010.- The exhibition ‘Tuna Fishing: sustainable fishing and responsible consumption' (‘Atunetan: pesca sostenible y consumo responsable') has been inaugurated today at the Donostia-San Sebastian AQUARIUM. It has been organised by AZTI-Tecnalia, the expert Technology Centre in marine and food research, and the AQUARIUM of Donostia-San Sebastian with the support of the Department for the Environment, Territorial Planning, Agriculture and Fisheries of the Government of the Basque Autonomous Community.

This exhibition, scheduled to remain open until after the summer, has been officially opened by Vicente Zaragüeta, Chairman of the Oceanographic Society of Gipuzkoa (Sociedad Oceanográfica de Gipuzkoa), Rogelio Pozo, AZTI-Tecnalia's CEO, and Jon Azkue, Head of the Sub-Ministry for Fishing of the Basque Autonomous Community Government.

The display reflects the importance of tuna for Basque society, and offers a global vision of this marine resource from the biological, technological, economic and gastronomic perspective. The exhibition sets out to contribute towards sustainable fishing and the responsible consumption of marine resources, as well as improve the spread of scientific knowledge and the visibility of the marine research that is conducted on our coasts.

INTERACTIVE AND VISUAL

In line with its philosophy not only to generate knowledge but also to spread it, AZTI-Tecnalia's work in this field spanning over 25 years has been devoted to developing numerous initiatives within the framework of the social popularisation of science, technology and innovation. For its part, the Donostia-San Sebastian AQUARIUM has been fostering our marine and maritime culture by carrying out many activities linked to popularisation and research during the 100 years of its existence. A special effort has been made in this exhibition to adapt it to the family visitor through content suited to all members of the public. The display also has an area devoted to the youngest visitors and a touch screen that will enable the organisers to gauge how much the visitors have learnt.

The exhibition makes use of interactive mediums and a variety of visual and audio aids designed to bring the world of the tuna closer to the visitors' senses. The content is reinforced through the launching of a special section on the display on the Itsasnet sea portal (www.itsasnet.com), where it will be possible to consult much of the information and graphic material on show in the exhibition.

Further information: www.itsasnet.com

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