Aims of the Foundation

CETMAR is a Galician Interest Foundation, was founded in 2001 by the Department do Mar and the Directorate General of I + D + I of the Xunta de Galicia and Ministry of Science and Innovation.

The main objective of the Centre is to promote cooperation among institutions, research centers and maritime and fishery sector and encourage the involvement of dependent sectors of the sea in R + D + I and promote the efficiency of all activities related to the use and exploitation of the marine environment.

CETMAR actions extend to national, European and international activity to be beneficiaries of all public and private sectors related to the sea and its resources and the marine environment in general.

The Centre is organised around eight work areas:

Control and Management of the Marine: Environment and Resources: Aimed at the protection, regeneration and improvement of the management of the marine environment and resources. Its basic lines of action are prevention, response and abatement of marine contamination of natural or anthropogenic origin and the  development of studies on the state of the environment and its resources, besides other actions aimed at minimising the environmentalimpact of fishing and aquiculture.

Fishing Socioeconomics: It promotes studies on the economic impact of the different activities of the sea-industry complex, and on commercialisation and markets of fishing products, on consumption habits or price monitoring. It also offers support to institutions and companies for the analysis and monitoring of public policies, management models and the assessment of the impact of national, community and international regulation. Finally, it tackles the social aspects of fishing as organisation systems, group dynamics or aspects related to the diversification of the sector.

International Cooperation: Its objective is to promote and support the development of marine sectors of third countries through the cooperation in fields such as conservation of the natural environment, the development of rural aquiculture, maritime-fisheries training or the promotion of the small-scale fishing sector, among others. It also provides its support to fishing companies for their internationalisation in Latin America and Africa.

Management Area: The management and administration of the centre is the responsibility of the Management and the Secretary General, who also develops specific projects in collaboration with other areas.

Marine Technologies Unit: This Unit focuses on the development of capacities and initiatives in the field of marine technology, favouring its growth and transfer, as well as the provision of highly qualified services.
Technology of Fish Products: Food security and nutritional quality, as well as the adjustment of  undervalued species and waste recovery, are fields in which this area carries out its activity, as well as working on projects to assure the quality of new products.

Technology Promotion and Transfer: From this area, special emphasis is placed on favouring the connection and communication between the scientific-technological environment and the productive environment. The analysis of the scientific and technological capacities of the environment and of the technological tendencies and needs in the sectors related to the sea and its products, is a key task in order to achieve its objectives.

Training: Its fundamental objective is to improve the quality of life of the maritimefishing sector through training. The department’s activity focuses on training in the strict sense of the word -courses and training plans- and scientific dissemination.