About MRC

The Marine Research Centre (MRC) was founded in 1984 as a small section of the Ministry of Fisheries. The section was housed in Henveyru Sanorama, a private house rented out for the purpose. Initially with only with six staff, with late Mr. Maizan Hassan Maniku as the Director, the initial activities were focused on documenting baseline information. Soon MRC was  able to attract foreign funding for its research activities and the centre grew both in number of staff and research activities being done.

MRC moved to Henveyru White Waves, an almost abandoned building, in 1987(?). The image of the left shows how the White Waves looked  at the time In 1998 the Marine Research Section was elevated to Marine Research Centre (MRC). White Waves building was also retrofitted a first floor extending to the entire ground floor. The building on the left on right image was how it looked. The second building on the compound was built in 2003-2004 to house a marine museum and meeting-cum-conference room.

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The Marine Research Centre is now a semi-autonomous Government institution mandated to undertake research on living marine resources and to provide scientific advice to the government and industry on rational utilization and management.

Marine Research Centre also an outpost research station, Bodumohoraa Island in Vaavu Atoll, some 65 km south of Male. The island is being developed as mariculture facility.  MRC has over 50 staff and undertakes research on fisheries, coral reefs and mariculture.

Updated: msa: 09 Dec 2008