FFS Walther Herwig III 351
Cruise plan
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | FFS Walther Herwig III (06NI) |
| Cruise identifier | 351 |
| Cruise period | 2012-01-23 — 2012-02-24 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Bremerhaven, Germany |
| Port of return | Bremerhaven, Germany |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | The main portion of the study trip is devoted to the "International Bottom Trawl Survey" for the first quarter of 2012, which, as in previous years is undertaken more or less simultaneously with research vessels from Denmark, France, Grate Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Germany. The study area is the North Sea, including Skagerrak and Kattegat. The catch results from all standardized hols will subsequently be prepared together with the according working groups of the International Council for Exploration of the Sea. The results serve as a basis to estimate the population sizes and strength of new generations of important commercial populations.
Comprehensive standardized ground trawl net catches of adult and juvenile fish will be carried out. Additional information on the abundance and distribution of herring and sprat larvae have been obtained in catches with the 2 meter Midwater Ringtrawl (MIK) since 1999. Also, measurements of the environmental parameters, temperature, salinity and nutrients in all water levels are part of the standard program. A further part of the program is dedicated to the larger length classes of pollack, for which the IBTS has no reliable data. Also a pilot study will supplement the trip results with vertical hydro-acoustic cuts to the north-western-northern North Sea shelf edge. |
| Chief scientist | Matthias H F Kloppmann (Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries, Hamburg) |
| Project | ICES International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) |
| Coordinating body | International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) |
| NPRC |  (0.14 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North Sea |
