In mid-January, a new phase of international collaboration began between LIFE Pinna and other organizations actively committed to the conservation of Pinna nobilis in the Mediterranean basin. Shoreline biologists have collected some specimens from the waters of the Venetian Lagoon and transported them to the Camogli laboratory, where researchers from the University of Genoa have already performed swabs to send to the University of Sassari for the usual molecular analyses, which are necessary to rule out the presence of dangerous infectious diseases.

With the transport from the Venetian Lagoon, the activities to achieve “winter” gonadal maturation, which would be preparatory to the reproduction of the individuals, have thus begun. The most important novelty is that these activities are now being carried out simultaneously in three institutes (in Camogli at the University of Genoa, in Trieste’s laboratories by Shoreline, and at the Pula Aquarium in Croatia), all following a single protocol (and thus the same techniques), which was developed in recent months by LIFE Pinna researchers. This intense collaboration will allow for the step-by-step sharing of results and real-time discussions on what is happening in the tanks.

Credit: Tiziano Coloretti/UNIGE