FRV Scotia 0909S
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | FRV Scotia (748S) |
| Cruise identifier | 0909S |
| Cruise period | 2009-06-28 — 2009-07-16 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Aberdeen, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Aberdeen, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Fisheries |
| Objectives | Objectives
1. To conduct an acoustic survey to estimate the abundance and distribution of herring in the northwestern North Sea and north of Scotland between 58º30'-62ºN and 4ºW to 2ºE, excluding Faroese waters. 2. To obtain biological samples for echosounder trace identification using a pelagic trawl. 3. To obtain samples of herring for biological analysis, including age, length, weight, sex, maturity, ichthyophonus infection and fat content. 4. To obtain hydrographic data for comparison with the horizontal and vertical distribution of herring. 5. To obtain plankton samples to map the distribution and abundance of zooplankton. Narrative All gear was loaded in Aberdeen between 24-26 June. Scotia departed at 0900hrs on 28 June. A short meeting was held with all scientists to explain the objectives of the survey, to describe general operating procedures and discuss risk assessments for tasks. Deployments of the PT160 pelagic trawl with multicodend sampler and the OCEAN sampler were conducted en route to Scapa Flow to familiarise staff with the handling of the equipment. Calibration of the hull-mounted transducers took place in Scapa Flow between 2330hrs on 28 June and 0600hrs on 29 June. Scotia then made her way to east of the Pentland Firth to the first survey transect beginning the survey at 1000hrs. Transects extended as far east as 1° 45E, and as far as safely possible to the west, on approaching the coast. A large haul of herring, estimated at 2 tonnes, caused the loss of one of the multisampler codends on 1 July as it was being recovered aboard. A half landing took place on 6 July in Lerwick in accordance with the rest provision for the Working Time Directive and to allow for the exchange of personnel (J Hunter, B McIver and C Main left and P Fernandes, C Hall and D Kaminski joined the vessel). The Scotia crew fabricated another cod end for the multi sampler during the half landing using material on board and netting sent from Aberdeen. They also added strengthening lines to each cod end to avoid a repetition of the net failure. Scotia resumed surveying at 1000hrs on 7 July. Time was lost due to poor weather on the 9 July when a strong Northerly gale forced Scotia to heave to for approx 10 hours until the gale had subsided. Recurring problems with both netsonde systems and the starboard netsonde winch caused the loss of a small amount of time during the cruise but repairs to both systems proved effective and they worked well for the remainder of the trip The survey was completed on 15 July at around 0920hrs. A second calibration was carried out in Scapa Flow on 15 July, which confirmed the first calibration results for the transducers. Scotia returned to Aberdeen on the morning of 16 July. |
| Chief scientist | Philip J Copland (Marine Scotland Aberdeen Marine Laboratory) |
| Project | RV0906 |
| Cruise programme |  (0.03 MB) |
| Cruise report | (0.03 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North Sea |
| Specific | Northern North Sea |
