70 years in Barceloneta

This is how in 1963 people bid farewell to the flamenco singer Carmen Amaya, born in Somorrostro … unknowingly, a premonition of a change of stage in which the neighbourhood of Barceloneta was submerging, marked in 1966 by the transfer of the inhabitants of Somorrostro and in 1992 by all the redevelopment linked to the Olympic Games. 

Barceloneta, and especially the Somorrostro beach, is a territory that has undergone a profound transformation, to the point of relying on often unknown concepts such as “Blue Economy”, a reflection of what the Institute of Marine Sciences currently represents.

Just as it has happened to Barcelona with the sea, research centres have long turned their backs on people, closed in on themselves, without perceiving a need to explain their work to society. But in recent years, these centres have realized that, without people, science loses its raison d’être, and they have organically become a tool for the permanent transfer of knowledge to the public.

A research centre of world reference

Nourished by this new scientific perspective is the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM), with a history of 70 years in Barceloneta and since 2001 based on the legendary Somorrostro beach. The ICM has become a research centre of excellence and in recent years has led the transformation of research with and for the society.

We are from this neighbourhood

The ICM has carried out a long history of activities in the neighbourhood and its beaches. And especially, in this last year, the links between many of the people who live or work in Barceloneta have been strengthened. Consequently, the ICM submarine has visited the Barceloneta square to encourage neighbours to explore the depths of our ocean, during “Christmas in the Street” we surprised the little ones with the similarities between marine and land animals, and during “La Matinal de las Fiestas de la Primavera” a stream of jellyfish came to La Repla to learn more about the butterflies of the sea.

But this does not end here, the ICM wants to take ocean culture to another level, a pioneering project in the world to raise awareness of this great body of water that regulates life on our planet, from the neighbourhood of Barceloneta to the neighbourhood and around the world.