Fukaura Laboratory, Hirosaki University, was built in 1968, as a bay-side educational facility in Fukaura, located on the west coast in Aomori Prefecture, for providing practical courses in marine biology for the students in the past Department of Science, Hirosaki University. In 1985, the building was partly extended, and then reassigned and renamed in 1997 as Fukaura Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science, Hirosaki University.
This laboratory is approximately 75 km apart from the main campus of the university and possesses good accessibility to the rich marine fauna and flora in the northern Japan Sea. Japan has many marine laboratories, but Fukaura Laboratory represents the only one located in the northwestern part of the Tohoku area to face the Japan Sea. The lab has two rubber boats and rooms for biological experiments, collected specimens, showers, a simple kitchen, etc., and has been utilized by 30 people including researchers and graduate students per year.
An ordinary marine biology course is held for a week in the summer, and the students learn about the fauna and flora on the west coast of Aomori as well as the morphology and physiology of marine invertebrate animals. Formerly, this laboratory was famous for research on entoprocts. The lab is expected to be a functional base for biological research on Shirakami Mountains, a World Natural Heritage site, and their related ecosystems, and also for ecological and fisheries research to learn and activate local human-nature environments and industries.
Fukaura Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science, Hirosaki University
Address: 173 Azumasawa, Fukaura Town, Nishitsugaru District, Aomori, 038-2300, Japan
E-mail: jm3748@hirosaki-u.ac.jp
HP: https://nature.hirosaki-u.ac.jp/center-facilities/fukaura/