Engin Ugural’s passion for perfection was the driving force to create unique marine habitats using limited space for filtration. The target since day 1 was to keep live corals in the most sustainable way, implementing filtration technology that would need the smallest possible footprint, operate under low energy consumption and having little to zero need for water replacement.
Post published:December 17, 2021
Post last modified:March 27, 2022
Reading time:1 mins read
The origins of MAT back in 1991.
Having to fish daily at a remote location by the borders of Turkey to Syria, Engin Ugural and Erdem Akaterpe had to camp by the beach for over 2 weeks, hoping to catch the fish species they were aiming for.
Engin Ugural driving the fishing boat carrying baits on a fishing line attempting to catch Mediterranean Sharks.
First large Shark caught after 21 days of unsuccessful fishing.
Erdem Akartepe with diving gear on a trip to Marmaris, Turkey, seeking for the right spot to collect specific fish species.
First attempts to fabricate fish holding tanks to be carried on fishing boats for sharks and rays collection.
Εngin Ugural performing fish acclimatization during the transportation of the fish from the sea to the TDE facility.
After a long night of fishing and securing rare deep sea Aegean fish.
First attempts of Erdem Akartepe to collect fish safely and ethically from the Mediterranean Sea near the Turkish borders with Syria.
Erdem Akartepe performing an ultrasound scan to a pregnant sea ray
Marine Biologist Arzu Surgun, our number 1 employee with MAT President Engin Ugural at the first attempts to maintain a live reef aquarium being filtered with new concept filtration technologies
Engin Ugural and Arzu Surgun with TDE colleauges in front of the current MAT production facility which back at the time was TDE.
Architect Roberto Braggiotti our number 2 employee with MAT President Engin Ugural posing proud infront of our quarantine system tanks
Designing & building a quarantine system for the first large commercial aquarium
MAT President Engin Ugural
First Commercial Aquarium installation
Force feeding freshly caught sharks
A school of sea rays at one of the holding tanks of TDE
Engin Ugural preparing the fish feed at the sea rays tank
A school of sea rays at one of the holding tanks of TDE, which later became part of the current production facility of MAT.
Left to right: Erdem Akartepe, Engin Ugural, Arzu Surgun, Kortan Arca and Umit Yildiz during the installation of the first LSS at TDE
