RV Cefas Endeavour 17/14
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RV Cefas Endeavour (74E9) |
| Cruise identifier | 17/14 |
| Cruise period | 2014-08-07 — 2014-09-03 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Lowestoft, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Lowestoft, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | Primary Objective: To carry out a groundfish survey of the North Sea as part of the ICES coordinated IBTS, using a standard GOV trawl in order to obtain information on:
a) Distribution, size composition and abundance of all fish species caught. b) Age - length distribution of selected species. c) Distribution of fish in relation to their environment. d) Distribution of macrobenthos and anthropogenic debris. e) Surface and bottom temperature and salinity data using CTD rosette and Niskin Bottle. f) Length weight & maturity information using individual fish measurements, in support of the EU Data Regulation. g) To collect marine litter from the trawl RV Cefas Endeavour sailed from Lowestoft on 7 August 2014 to begin the Quarter 3 IBTS North Sea Groundfish Survey for the UK. A valid GOV trawl haul was successfully completed at 73 primary station positions. Surface and bottom salinity samples and a water column CTD profile were taken at the 73 primary stations fished. A total of 8023 biological samples were taken for the primary target species. In addition, a total of 32 elasmobranchs were captured, tagged and released during the survey. RV Cefas Endeavour returned back to Lowestoft on 3 September. |
| Chief scientist | Richard Andrew Ayers (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science Lowestoft Laboratory), Sophy McCully Phillips (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science Lowestoft Laboratory) |
| Project | ICES International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) |
| Coordinating body | International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) |
| Cruise programme |  (0.14 MB) |
| Cruise report | (1.96 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North Sea |
| Measurements | |
| Physical oceanography | |
| CTD stations | Quantity: number of stations = 74 Description: Surface and bottom seawater collected from 74 stations |
| CTD stations | Quantity: number of profiles = 74 Description: CTD casts |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | Quantity: number of recoveries = 3 Description: Recovery of a baited underwater camera frame |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | Quantity: number of deployments = 3 Description: A baited underwater camera frame was deployed to video record piscivorous fish in the area |
| Contamination | |
| Other contaminant measurements | Quantity: number of stations = 42 Description: Litter collection from the 89 trawls - marine litter was present in 42 stations |
| Biology and fisheries | |
| Phytoplankton pigs (eg chlorophyll, fluorescence) | Quantity: number of experiments = 54 Description: Pigment and flow cytometry conducted at 54 CTD stations |
| Particulate organic matter (inc POC, PON) | Quantity: number of samples = 75 Description: Particulate in/organic carbon analysis of seawater was conducted at 75 stations |
| Dissolved organic matter (inc DOC) | Quantity: number of experiments = 53 Description: Seawater collected from 53 CTD stations and incubations conducted to determine rate of dissolved organic matter degradation by the natural microbial community |
| Zooplankton | Quantity: number of deployments = 50 Description: 50 MIK net tows for Jellyfish |
| Birds | Quantity: activity duration in days = 31 Description: Seabird observations made by observers |
| Mammals and reptiles | Quantity: activity duration in days = 31 Description: Cetacean recordings made by observers |
| Demersal fish | Quantity: number of hauls = 89 Description: 75 stations fished with nylon GOV, 14 fished with poly GOV net |
| Taggings | Quantity: number of specimens = 88 Description: 88 elasmobranchs tagged with Petersen discs |
| Other biological/fisheries measurement | Quantity: number of samples = 7301 Description: 7301 biological samples, including otoliths collected for ageing purposes for commercial fish |
| Geology and geophysics | |
| Grab | Quantity: number of samples = 38 Description: Day grabs for particle sediment analysis |
| Single-beam echosounding | Quantity: activity duration in days = 31 Description: Fisheries acoustic data were continuously collected at three operating frequencies (38 kHz, 120 kHz and 200 kHz), using the Simrad EK60 split beam sounder |
| Data held at BODC | |
| Discrete samples | |
| 24 Sample taken from ship's non-toxic supply | |
| 25 Water bottle hydrocast |
