History and introduction:
The beginning of the Department of Fisheries was dated back to 2008. The department was co-established by ex-Artemia and Aquatic Animals Research Institute, Urmia University (now Artemia and Aquaculture Research Institute) to conduct professional researches in the fields of fisheries and aquaculture. In the early years, only degree of Master of Aquaculture was offered. It was in 2012 that department became eligible to offer Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) in the field of Aquaculture. Meetings the standards of Ministry of Sciences and Technology, MSc programs in the fields of Aquatic ecology (2014), Seafood processing (2015) and Aquatic biotechnology (2015) were also launched. More than 45 graduate students are currently enrolled in master and PhD programs. Graduate student research projects involve various areas of fish and shellfish reporduction and nutrition, live food, limnology, toxicology, seafood processing and aquatic biotechnology. These projects are taking advantages of collaborative execution with Artemia and Aquaculture Research Institute and other national research centers. Graduate students present their research findings to a wide range of regional, national and international audiences.
The mission:
Conducting multidisciplinary applied and basic research in field of fish and shellfish aquaculture, aquatic ecology, seafood processing, aquatic biotechnology and also contributing to educating expertised human resources as an undeniable prerequisite of sustainable development with emphasis on the national and local priorities;
1- Developing fish and shellfish aquaculture while at the same time maintaining the viability of the environment and trying to provid responsible inland fisheries
2- Integrating ecology and management of aquatic habitats with regard to evaluating and alleviating the effects of human activities on aquatics and their habitats
3- Innovating healthy and value added seafood products and recovering value from fish processing wastes
4- Application, use and impact of existent and emerging biological technologies for exploiting biological resources from the aquatic environments
