Aims and mission

The Mediterranean Marine Mammal Tissue Bank collects and preserves biological material sampled from marine mammals stranded along the Italian coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, in cooperation with the University of Padova, the Italian Ministry of the Environment, the Institutes for Animal Health, and with several other non-profit Italian organizations dedicated to the marine mammal research.

The Bank received specific financial support from the University of Padova and from the Italian Ministry of the Environment.

The Mediterranean Marine Mammal Tissue Bank aims at gathering information related to several questions about marine mammal biology, genetics, anatomy, physiology, pathology and ethology that are still unanswered. The bank aims also at conserving and protecting marine mammals that live in the Mediterranean Sea by increasing the general knowledge on their biology and environment.