While the Camogli, Trieste and Pola laboratories continue to work in sync to achieve gonadal maturation in temperature-controlled tanks, there was a surprise in Trieste. At the end of April, some fins from the Shoreline aquarium spontaneously released both female and male gametes, ahead of schedule. Researchers promptly intervened to collect samples of both to attempt fertilisation.

A week after Trieste, valuable news also arrived from the Camogli (GE) laboratory. Here, researchers from the University of Genoa, who are working on specimens from the Venice Lagoon, observed that two individuals spontaneously released gametes, male and female respectively, with which it was possible to carry out controlled fertilisation. Early gonadal maturation therefore worked, allowing spontaneous fertilisation in both Trieste and Camogli. Biologists immediately began monitoring the development of the larval stages, as can be seen from the images recorded by the microscope at 20x magnification. The researchers’ goal and hope is to complete the full fertilisation cycle.