Since December 2016 three vessels (Nuevo San Cibrán, Portosanto and Ría de Marín) associated to OPROMAR (Marín Harbor Producers Organization), partner of this project, are developing different fishing seasons to perform tasks of management, research and later valorization in the pilot plant installed by the project in the facilities of the Marín and Ría de Pontevedra Port Authority.
These are the first 50 fishing seasons to be carried out for the management and valorization of the fishing discards landed. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment has given the permission to do it.
So far some tests have been made to obtain different products, both for human and non-human consumption. In the same way the samples obtained during the seasons are employed to continue training and improving the observation system iObserver (vision system developed by the project aimed at identifying and quantifying the discarded biomass, as well as the target catch).
In addition, the Group of Environmental Engineering and Bioprocesses from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) is monitoring the whole process measuring the time to manage the discards, which will allow in the future the accurate evaluation of the socio-economic impact.