Galician Institute of Aquaculture Training

The **Galician Institute of Aquaculture Training** ( **IGaFA** or **IGAFA** ) is an educational body dependent on the Directorate General of Innovation and Development of the Ministry of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs of the Galician autonomous government (Xunta de Galicia). It is supported by the European Social Fund. Courses are run which give certificates for shell fisherman, aquaculturist and specialist in marine cultures.

The center is on the Illa de Arousa.

## History 
The first attempts to found a "Pisciculture" center in the Ría de Arousa were made by Antón Vila Nadal. At the end of the 19th century he proposed the creation of a single Galician Biological Station, located in Carril. In the pamphlet *Objeto y descripción del Acuario Ambulante de la Estación Zoológica de Barcelona y Escuela de Piscicultura de Arosa* (1892)  he explained the details and set out his ideas about the Station. In 1900 the first stone of the Station was laid in Carril. It was supposed to be part of the University of Santiago de Compostela and under the professor of Natural History. However, it was not until 1952 that the Marine Research Institute was created in Vigo. 

Much later, public bodies such as the Center for the Control of the Marine Environment, CIMA and INTECMAR were created.

In the second half of the 80's, during González Laxe's  presidency of the Xunta, the IGAFA was tendered, the main architect was Pascuala Campos de Michelena, and others collaborated such as Rodríguez Abilleira and Teresa Táboas. They wanted it to be like the large number of canneries on the island. 

Since 2005, IGaFA has been the *"National Center for Occupational Vocational Training in the Aquaculture Training Area"* and has been ISO 9001: 2000 certified by the Quality Management System.

## Training offers 
Occupational training courses in aquaculture were  held at the center until 1994.

It is possible to study diving and aquaculture courses at the center. 

It is part of the *Erasmus +* organization. 

The non-regulated courses include shell fishing and professional diving, since 1999. This is the only center in Galicia that provides this training.
### Specific Vocational Training Cycles
The regulated training courses since 1994 are the Specific Vocational Training Cycles:

* Aquaculture Cultivation Operations Technician (Intermediate)
* Higher Technician in Aquaculture Production (Higher Degree)
* In the year 2000, the teaching of the intermediate cycle of adult aquaculture (or Modular) and the Social Guarantee Program "Aquaculture Worker" began.
* In 2001, the middle cycle "Medium Depth Diving Technician" started.
* In the 2003-2004 academic year, the "Master in Innovation, Production Technology and Aquaculture Management" (MITGA) was taught.
* Technician in underwater and hyperbaric operations.

## Facilities 
The center has common facilities for teaching aquaculture and diving. There are 11 classrooms for theoretical classes, a library, an auditorium, science and biology laboratories, an audiovisual classroom and a computer room.

For  aquaculture it has cultivation facilities of 1,175 m 2 with the necessary sections for the conditioning of the breeders, incubation, larval culture, larval feeding (phytoplankton and zooplankton) and pre-fattening of cultivated species, in the areas of auxiliary crops, cultivation of fish and shellfish farming.

It has four laboratories equipped with optical material for the practices of aquaculture cycles, as well as a workshop on marine culture facilities.

It also has a raft for the cultivation of molluscs, two cages for fattening fish and crustaceans and an intertidal park provided by the Fishermen's Guild of An Illa de Arousa.

In the outer enclosure there are two mini-farms of molluscs, a greenhouse for continental fish farming and facilities of the "*Plan of Repopulation of Marine Species of the Galician Coast* ".

For professional diving lessons, there are equipped rooms, an indoor swimming pool, an outdoor pool, a hyperbaric chamber, a gas charging station, an aquarium room, a welding workshop, a mechanics workshop and several boats. 

## Notes 
## Related pages 
* Aquaculture
## Other websites 
* Reference page on the Xunta server
* IGaFa Youtube Channel
* YouTube video with facilities and training offer
* Video of the Open Day (November 2021)
* The center in the TVE program "Aquí hay trabajo" (in Spanish)