A public national school in Grande-Rivière, Québec, offering professional and college-level marine training in fishing and aquaculture.
The École des pêches et de l'aquaculture du Québec (ÉPAQ) is a public national school located in Grande-Rivière, on the edge of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is associated with the Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles and offers professional and college-level training specific to the marine world. The school's mission includes offering professional training programs in the fishing and aquaculture sector.
The school was founded in 1948, when the École d'apprentissage en pêcheries de Grande-Rivière was inaugurated on 27 June 1948. It officially opened its doors on 1 April 1949. In 1968 the first training vessel, the E.P. Le Québécois, was launched. In 1977 the school became the Institut des pêches du Québec. A fire destroyed the Centre spécialisé des pêches on 12 November 1984. In 2007 it changed its name to the École des pêches et de l'aquaculture du Québec.
The ÉPAQ is located in Grande-Rivière, a town of about 3,500 inhabitants. A training vessel, the Marin-Pêcheur, is available to students at the dock, a few dozen metres from the school. The campus has a library, a cafeteria, a convenience store and a fitness room, and includes an aquaculture laboratory among its facilities.
Canadian students can apply through the Service régional d'admission au collégial de Québec (SRACQ). The school also accepts international students, including non-French and French applicants, and offers a continuation pathway after BTS for French students.