EEA Grants

Project Short Name: Estação Móvel Flying Sharks | Flying Sharks Mobile Station

This project is a follow-up to two previous initiatives carried out by the same company under financing programs CENTRO-M8-2017-40 Empreendedorismo SI2E GAL Pesca Oeste do Programa Operacional Regional do Centro and "Fundo Azul 2018", approved in September 2017 and April 2019, respectively. Both initiatives shared a similar goal, which was to considerably increase Flying Sharks operational abilities in Peniche, which was achieved in both cases. However, as the company grows and gains increasingly more notoriety both in Portugal and abroad continuous requests keep streaming in, for both live animals and also for transporting live fish and invertebrates, particularly when such transports are perceived as particularly risky.

Such was the case of a road transport of 15 cownose rays (Rhinoptera marmoratus) fromistanbul to Madrid in October 2018, which was an horrendously difficult job, spanning over six days, two of which spent entirely at customs and at the border with Bulgaria. Other colorful moments included five team members sharing evenings on the transport truck's cabin, and fighting off refugees, which laid down on the road, in an effort to stop trucks and then board them illicitly. Much easier albeit technically complex was the transport of 1200 salmon smolts (Salmo salar) from an aquaculture facility in Sveio (Norway) to ECOMARE (in Aveiro, Portugal), at the request of the very large Jerónimo Martins consortium. This transport was done with zero mortalities, over three days, and we did it again from Galway (Ireland) later in 2019.

The objective of this project is therefore to build a state of the art transport unit consisting of an isothermic temperature controlled 40 feet shipping container which will allow to hold and move marine fish and invertebrates over longterm periods. Given its longterm scope, this unit was later rebaptized to a mobile holding station, since it will allow for far more than merely moving animals, while in fact allowing for moving the whole of Peniche s holding station anywhere in the world by land or water. The equipments chosen for water filtration and monitoring will make this the most sophisticated unit of its kind in the world, allowing for subsequent sales of customized units to public aquaria, collection companies or aquaculture facilities. Such details include, among others, remote monitoring of water quality parameters and the animals themselves.