FRV Alba Na Mara 1309A
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | FRV Alba Na Mara (74NM) |
| Cruise identifier | 1309A |
| Cruise period | 2009-08-07 — 2009-08-21 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Fraserburgh, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Fraserburgh, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Fisheries |
| Objectives | Objectives
1. To obtain estimates of the distribution and abundance of Nephrops in the Firth of Forth, Moray Firth and off Arbroath using underwater cameras. 2. To use the TV footage to record occurrence of other benthic fauna and evidence of commercial trawling activity. 3. To collect trawl caught samples of Nephrops for comparison of reproductive condition and morphometrics in each of the different survey areas. 4. To collect sediment samples at each station. 5. To carry out a series of Beam trawls within Nephrops grounds in area. Narrative All scientific staff were on board FRV Alba na Mara by 10:00 on Friday 7 August 2009, and the vessel sailed at 10:30, heading south towards the Firth of Forth, arriving at the anchorage in St. Andrews Bay at 20:30 later that day. On 8 August, the weather was favourable which allowed the vessel to head off to survey the more exposed stations east of Fife Ness. A trial launch and recovery of the sledge was carried out en-route, which proved successful, followed by 11 stations surveyed for the day, before anchoring off the Isle of May at 20:00. The weather on 9 August remained calm and so heading south east towards St Abb's Head, 2 stations were surveyed en-route, before completing another 6 scheduled stations. With the work progressing ahead of schedule, three additional stations were surveyed in the same area. Although these 3 sites were within the overall boundary of the survey area as defined by the British Geological Survey (BGS.), the method by which these sites were chosen was not based not the standard 'random stratified approach' as defined in the TV survey protocol, but by manually selecting small areas of sediment unsuitable for Nephrops habitation within the overall boundary as indicated by the BGS charts. Therefore the results from these three stations may have to be excluded from the final assessment but provides valuable information on the extent |
| Chief scientist | Adrian Weetman (Marine Scotland Aberdeen Marine Laboratory), John B Tait (Marine Scotland Aberdeen Marine Laboratory) |
| Project | RV0908 |
| Cruise programme |  (0.03 MB) |
| Cruise report | (0.08 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North Sea |
| Specific | Firth of Forth, Moray Firth and North Sea off Arbroath |
