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Butrinti Lake, Saranda, Albania

Picture report by Petter Aaby Vebenstad (Teknologisk Institutt, Norway)

December 2012

Butrinti Lake– a lagoon important for fishing and aquaculture .

Butrinti Lake, located in Saranda, South-west Albania.

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SeaMed team in Saranda: Gulielm Kroqi, Petter Vebenstad, Jerina Kolitari, Roland Kristo, and Edmond Gorenca.

Mussel farms in Butrinti Lake. The Mediterranean mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis is the one and only species farmed there.

Fish farms in Butrinti Lake.

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Rope/hanging culture.

Employees prepare mussel ropes for harvesting.

Blue mussel during spawning period.

Blue mussel.

Blue mussels from the lagoon.

Typical fouling organism.

Fouling on mussels.

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Depuration and Processing

The facility was (re)built in 2006, supported by EU.

Overview of facility.

Depuration and processing facility for mussels run by the Albanian government. Farmers rent it by the hour.

Salt water and fresh water supply. Fresh water is pumped from 70m below.

Depuration and re-watering zone Grading/processing zone

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Depuration / re-watering tanks.

Water pumping and UV treatment . Declumper grader for separating

mussels and grading according to size.

Inside declumper. Side-view of declumper-grader.

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The size grader consists of horizontal bars with different gaps. It sorts commercial sized mussels from the non-commercial.

Example of label. Mussels are packed in nets (5 kg and 10 kg).

Chilling room of packed products inside the facility.

Sampling and analysis of water and mussels

Analysing weight and length-width relationship of mussels, as a part of the student project.

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Mussel weight. Meat weight.

Water samples at various depths. Hydrochemical analyses of the water

were carried out as a part of the SeaMed project.

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Gulielm Kroqi (Master student from Albanian University) taking notes.

Turbidity measurements using a Sechi Disk.

Fishing in Saranda

Fishing is one of the main industries in Saranda.

Example of fishing gear.

Pictures by Petter Vebenstad, 2012