The PPG-RPAq program currently has 19 laboratories in the field of Fisheries Resources and Aquaculture, an Aquaculture Station, a Fishing Base, three classrooms, an auditorium, and a computer room. There are also additional support infrastructures, such as the Science Boat "Ciência do Mar IV" (in partnership with other institutions), CENAPESQ (a multi-user research support center at UFRPE), laboratories from other departments/programs used for collaborative research, and two libraries with direct and indirect resources for program disciplines, as well as access to high-impact international and national journals on all computers in the program’s laboratories.
Laboratories
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Fishery Oceanography Laboratory (Responsible: Dr. Paulo Oliveira)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory has three rooms for researchers and students, a reception and biological sample processing room, and a histology/microscopy/ fish growth study room. It has computing equipment (12 computers, 3 printers, broadband internet), oceanographic environmental data collection equipment (current meter and mini-depth thermometer), acoustic telemetry (VEMCO system), and satellite tagging (Pop-up Satellite Archival Tag - PSAT) for aquatic animal behavior studies, histology equipment (microtome, oven, magnifiers, microscopes, and glassware), and equipment for age and growth studies (metal saw). It also has five freezers for sample storage and a truck for fieldwork support.
Characteristics: Research activities include studying distribution and relative abundance of large pelagic fish (tuna, swordfish, and sharks), reproductive biology, migratory movements, physical oceanography, fishery oceanography, and capture technology. -
Marine Ecology Laboratory (Responsible: Dr. Paulo E. Pires Ferreira Travassos)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory has three rooms for researchers and students, a reception and biological sample processing room, and histology study areas. It is equipped with 12 computers, 3 printers, broadband internet, oceanographic environmental data collection equipment (current meter, CTD - conductivity, temperature, and depth, mini-depth thermometers), acoustic telemetry (VEMCO system), and satellite tagging (Pop-up Satellite Archival Tag - PSAT) for aquatic animal behavior studies, and histology equipment (magnifiers, microscopes, and glassware). The laboratory also has a truck for fieldwork support.
Characteristics: Research includes the distribution and relative abundance of tunas and related species, pelagic coastal fish, habitat occupation through species-environment relationships, effects of climatic and oceanographic variability on the distribution, abundance, and catchability of large pelagic fish, and oceanographic characterization of study areas using remote sensing applied to Fisheries and Oceanography. -
Marine Population Dynamics Laboratory (Responsible: Dr. Rosângela Paula Teixeira Lessa)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory has five rooms, including researcher/student rooms, a microscopy room, a data processing room, a biological sample reception room, and a wet laboratory. Main equipment includes a metal saw, ultra-freezer, lyophilizer, optical microscopes, magnifiers, computers connected to broadband internet, and printers.
Characteristics: Research focuses on the population dynamics of elasmobranchs, pelagic marine teleosts, marine food chains, marine community ecology, marine stock evaluation, and fishery ecology. -
Fishing Technology Laboratory (Responsible: Dr. Paulo Travassos)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory has a researcher/student room and a room for storing fishing gear. It is equipped with 5 computers, 2 printers, and broadband internet. The laboratory also has various fishing equipment for studying the technological efficiency of pelagic and demersal fish capture methods (2 hydraulic winches for pelagic longline fishing, radio buoys, radio direction-finders, Hook Timers, GPS, TDR - temperature and depth recorder).
Characteristics: The laboratory focuses on the technological efficiency of fish capture methods. -
Live Food Production Laboratory (Responsible: Dr. Alfredo Olivera Galvez)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory has the infrastructure and equipment necessary for collecting, maintaining, and cultivating microorganisms of interest to aquaculture, such as microalgae, rotifers, Artemia, and copepods. It also has 4 computers connected to broadband internet, microscopes, magnifiers, sterilization ovens, autoclaves, air blowers, incubators, and various systems for maintaining and cultivating microalgae and other organisms.
Characteristics: Research includes reproductive characterization, management, and growth of microorganisms for aquaculture food production. -
Aquaculture Production Systems Laboratory (Responsible: Dr. Juliana Ferreira dos Santos)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory includes a professor’s room, study room, meeting room, kitchenette, reagents room, and internal and external laboratories. The internal laboratory has equipment such as an Elisa reader, hematocrit centrifuge, spectrophotometer, oven, ultrasonography machine, refrigerators, freezers, automatic colony counter, computers, and notebooks for physical, chemical, and biological analyses. The external laboratory has two recirculating systems with experimental units of 40 and 300L, and tanks for storing freshwater or seawater with volumes of 10,000L.
Characteristics: Research focuses on the management, feeding, nutritional, and productive aspects of aquaculture species. -
Ichthyology Laboratory (Responsible: Dr. William Severi)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory has approximately 100 m² divided into three areas: a researcher’s room and two for routine analysis. Equipment includes magnifiers, optical microscopes, digital and analytical scales, computers connected to broadband internet, and field materials (nets, seines, etc.).
Characteristics: The laboratory focuses on fish ecology, fish taxonomy, ichthyoplankton ecology in estuarine and freshwater environments, and the ontogeny of marine and freshwater fish. It also has an ichthyological collection. -
Applied Genetics Laboratory (Responsible: Dr. Maria Raquel Moura Coimbra)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory has two rooms covering 100 m², housing equipment such as refrigerated centrifuges, PCR workstations, fume hoods, distillers, pH meters, vortexes, agarose gel tanks, water baths, bacteriological incubators, thermoshakers, laminar flow hoods, notebooks, desktop computers, printers, analytical scales, microwave ovens, refrigerators, ultra-freezers, thermocyclers, DNA sequencer, real-time thermocycler, and DNA photodocumentation equipment.
Characteristics: Research includes genetics, gene expression, biotechnology, conservation genetics, and molecular diagnostics for aquatic organisms. -
Limnology Laboratory (Responsible: Dr. William Severi)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory focuses on environmental monitoring, water quality control in hydroelectric reservoirs, and supporting research projects. It has equipment for performing physical-chemical water analysis in over 25 parameters, such as water ultrapurification systems, spectrophotometers, multiparameter probes, fume hoods, analytical balances, ovens, muffle furnaces, and autoclaves.
Characteristics: Research on freshwater and estuarine ecosystem characterization, water quality in reservoirs, and the impact of aquaculture on freshwater and coastal environments. -
Sustainable Mariculture Laboratory (LAMARSU) (Responsible: Dr. Alfredo Olivera Galvez)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory has 250 m², with equipment for water quality monitoring, nitrogenous compound analysis, and bacteriological analysis. It also has areas for oyster and shrimp larviculture, microalgae cultivation, and bioassays with shrimp.
Characteristics: Research on the cultivation and biology of native aquaculture species, including shrimp and mollusks. -
Human Impact on Marine and Estuarine Biodiversity Laboratory (BIOIMPACT) (Responsible: Profs. Flávia L. Frédou and Thierry Frédou)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory has approximately 100 m², divided into 3 areas with freezers, magnifiers, microscopes with cameras, balances, lyophilizers, computers, and printers.
Characteristics: Research on human activity impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in marine and estuarine environments. This includes biodiversity assessment using taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic methods, as well as environmental DNA (eDNA) for non-invasive monitoring. It also studies trophic interactions and ecosystem functioning, the impacts of pollutants such as microplastics, heavy metals, PFAS, and others, and sustainable fisheries management. -
Applied Statistical Modeling Laboratory (MOE) (Responsible: Prof. Humber Agrelli Andrade)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory covers approximately 60 m², with 2 areas. It is equipped with computers, printers, and freezers.
Characteristics: It is used for statistical modeling of fisheries, aquaculture, ecology, and aquatic resource population dynamics data, and collaborates on research projects from other laboratories. -
Aquaculture Technology Laboratory (Responsible: Profa. Dr. Roberta Borda Soares and Prof. Dr. Silvio Ricardo Maurano Peixoto)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory has approximately 100 m², with areas for washing and disinfecting glassware and materials, microscopy, and water quality monitoring, such as nitrogen compound, phosphorus, and organic matter analysis. It also has three recirculation systems for marine water, with experimental units of 400L, 100L, and 30L, for bioassays.
Characteristics: The laboratory focuses on shrimp research, particularly in feeding behavior, acoustic monitoring, and histological analysis of the digestive tract. -
Fish Processing Technology Laboratory (LATPESC) (Responsible: Prof. Paulo Roberto C. Oliveira Filho)
Basic Conditions: It covers about 50 m², with various computer equipment, a fish cleaning, eviscerating, and filleting table with individual faucets, climate-controlled workstations, refrigerators, vacuum sealing machines, food processors, meat grinders, and stainless steel tables.
Characteristics: Research on fish processing and by-product utilization. -
Aquatic Animal Health Laboratory (LASAq) (Responsible: Profa. Suzianny Cabral)
Basic Conditions: The laboratory covers 100 m², with eight rooms, including microbiology, sterilization, and nucleic acid extraction areas, a microscopy room, molecular analysis lab, and bioassay area.
Characteristics: Research on prophylaxis, diagnosis, and epidemiology of diseases in aquatic organisms, molecular virology, development of diagnostic kits for pathogens, experimental infection studies, and immune response gene identification in fish and shrimp. -
Laboratory of Fisheries Biology (Responsible: Prof. Renata Akemi Shinozaki Mendes, Academic Unit of Serra Talhada of UFRPE)
With approximately 25 m², it has the following equipment: 8m aluminum boat (1), 15hp outboard motor (2), automatic histotechnical processor (1), hood (1), water bath (1), paraffin dispenser (1), oven (1), horizontal freezer (1), refrigerator (1), magnifying lens with camera attached to computer (1), microscope with camera attached to computer (1), rotary microtome (2), blower motor for aeration (1), aquariums (16), balance (2), portable oxymeter (1), portable pH meter (1), tripod (1), and camera (1). It is used for research with undergraduate and postgraduate students. -
Laboratory of Shrimp Farming (LACAR) (Responsible: Prof. Luís Otávio Brito da Silva)
The infrastructure includes a laboratory located in the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture at UFRPE, as briefly described below:
LACAR - Conducts research on the cultivation of Litopenaeus vannamei in marine and low salinity environments, focusing on fertilization management and water quality, especially in systems with minimal water exchange. It also has outreach activities in Pernambuco, supporting the farming of marine shrimp. With 100 m² of built area, the laboratory has: a section for water quality and ionic balance monitoring; a room for experiments with 12 tanks of 1000L, 20 tanks of 70L, and a bench for experiments with 20L units. Additionally, it has: 2 radial compressors of 1 hp; 1 18,000L saline water reservoir; equipment to measure water quality and ionic balance; portable meters for pH, ORP, Salinity, Oxygen, and Temperature; refrigerator; microwave; and computers. -
Other research facilities
Professor Johei Koike Aquaculture Station
BASIC CONDITIONS: Located on the main UFRPE campus, about 700 meters from DEPAq, this station occupies an area of 56,000 m² with twelve 30 m² masonry tanks, twelve experimental tanks (10 m² each), four 250 m² ponds, fifteen 1,000 m² ponds, one 1,200 m² pond, seven 1,800 m² ponds, and one 4,700 m² pond. It also has a shed with masonry tanks for managing breeders, larvae, and fish fry, as well as various structures to support research on marine and freshwater shrimp. This building has a break room.
CHARACTERISTICS: Its infrastructure supports research activities related to fish farming, especially regarding fry production and distribution; control of gonadal maturation in fish; biotechnology applied to aquaculture; and the cultivation of aquatic microorganisms.Marine Research and Training Center of Itamaracá Island - Northern Coast
BASIC CONDITIONS: Located in the northern part of Itamaracá Island, in the Jaguaribe Community, this center has accommodations for researchers and students for theoretical and practical classes in both undergraduate and postgraduate disciplines, as well as research development in mariculture and fishing. It also has a room for classes and meetings, a set of tanks for cultivation experiments, a fishing vessel (8m) for the coastal region, and two small vessels (6m) for operations in the inner sea (protected area by coral reefs) and estuarine zones.
CHARACTERISTICS: Its infrastructure supports research activities related to fishing and aquaculture, as well as practical classes for undergraduate and postgraduate courses.In all the laboratories mentioned above, there are undergraduate and postgraduate students, and many of the laboratories also have postdoctoral researchers. The program also has a team of laboratory and field technicians (5) who provide support for various activities.
Additionally, the program has a secretariat with a reception area, and two meeting rooms. There are also computers (2), projectors (2), and a TV (1) for educational support.
Marine Sciences IV
Supports classes and research carried out in the Marine Science programs of the Northeast Region. The vessel is 32m long, with a draft of 2.7m, a molded beam of 7.9m, and a crew capacity for eight people and 18 passengers (students and professors). It has a safe navigation range for ten days and is equipped with navigation, safety, and scientific instruments for hull-mounted hydroacoustics, seismic, and physical measurements.
The ship has its own crew available for the activities.International Mixed Laboratory - France Cooperation (IRD) Brazil (UFRPE/UFPE)
BASIC CONDITIONS: This laboratory has approximately 20 m² with computers, printers, etc.
CHARACTERISTICS: Reception room for visiting researchers within the LMI TAPIOCA International Mixed Laboratory Brazil (UFRPE and UFPE) France (IRD).
Currently, it has a team of three researchers from France.CENAPESQ (http://www.cenapesq.ufrpe.br)
Inaugurated on September 10, 2007, the center was funded by CT-INFRA/FINEP and FACEPE - Foundation for Science and Technology Support of the State of Pernambuco. It is linked to the Institute of Innovation, Research, Entrepreneurship, Internationalization, and Institutional Relations - Institute IPÊ at UFRPE. It is a multi-user unit supporting various sectors of the university and postgraduate programs in scientific, technical, and cultural tasks, including: Molecular Biology Laboratory, Biotechnology Laboratory, Microscopy Laboratory, with equipment like cryostats, semi-automatic rotary microtomes, scanning electron microscopes, -80°C ultrafreezers, bioreactors/fermenters, among others. It has a multidisciplinary team of 10 technicians to assist with ongoing analyses.Postgraduate Room
BASIC CONDITIONS: The postgraduate program currently has a coordination room and meeting rooms for the CCD, a secretary’s room (with two computers, two printers, and broadband internet), three classrooms, an archive room, and a seminar room with a capacity of 50 people. All rooms are air-conditioned and have multimedia equipment (2 projectors), a TV (1), and a computer lab with 12 fully equipped computers.
CHARACTERISTICS: This infrastructure supports the teaching activities of the program, as well as thesis and dissertation defenses and seminars. Additionally, it has a dedicated server and exclusive secretariat for program activities.Library and Collection
The collection of the Integrated Library System at UFRPE (SIB-UFRPE) consists of approximately 230,000 volumes and can be consulted via the Online Catalog of Pergamum. Materials are organized in collections and cataloged using the Dewey Decimal Classification (CDD). The UFRPE library has a collection of 98,272 books, periodicals, and videos in various areas, including Exact and Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering/Technology, Health Sciences, Agrarian Sciences, Social Sciences, Humanities, Linguistics, Letters, and Arts. It has 51,674 periodical titles, and access to the CAPES Periodicals Portal is available to all faculty, students, and staff.
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BDTD (Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations) - Integrates thesis and dissertation information from Brazilian institutions, allowing greater visibility of national scientific output.
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BDTD UFRPE - Includes works produced by UFRPE’s Postgraduate Programs.
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UFRPE Periodicals Portal - Includes scientific journals produced at the university for greater visibility.
The UFRPE library also offers various online resources, including the Minha Biblioteca platform for access to over 11,000 titles from major Brazilian academic publishers. -
Field Collection Vehicles
The UFRPE's Pesquisa em Movimento Program provides five vehicles for researchers to intensify fieldwork for data collection and scientific research, aiming to increase the qualitative and quantitative output of scientific and technical publications developed externally to the institution.Information Technology Resources
The program has a broadband internet network and the Eduroam WIFI network linking all the program’s buildings with the DEPAq facilities (laboratories and administrative sectors), as well as a computer lab with 10 desktop computers, equipped for text editing and spreadsheets. There are also statistical software programs, graphic programs, printers, and a multimedia projector available for seminars and training. These IT resources are used by the postgraduate students for seminars, work, and access to the CAPES Periodicals Portal.