FRV Scotia 1114S
Cruise plan
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | FRV Scotia (748S) |
| Cruise identifier | 1114S |
| Cruise period | 2014-07-31 — 2014-08-22 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Aberdeen, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Aberdeen, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | Objectives
1. To complete an internationally coordinated demersal trawling survey in the North Sea in ICES area IV. 2. To obtain temperature and salinity data from the surface and seabed at each trawling station using a SEABIRD 19+ CTD. 3. EDC (electronic data capture) and FSS database utilised for recording all biological survey data. 4. Collect additional biological data in connection with the EU Data Collection Framework (DCF). Procedures General Loading of the trawl gear and scientific equipment will take place on 28 July with rigging and testing being completed on the same day. Scotia will sail on the morning of Thursday 31 July. The first station is located not far from Aberdeen so once the safety drills have been completed Scotia will proceed to the first station where a shakedown haul will be completed in advance of the first real haul in order to check the net configuration and Scanmar units. An operational daily survey plan will be formulated by the SIC subsequent to meetings with both the Fishing master and the Captain. It is the intention that these meetings take place where possible during times that are mutually convenient. Trawling There are 84 programmed rectangles to be surveyed and these are highlighted on the attached chart. Depending on the progress of the other survey participants 6 of these rectangles (51E9, 49E9, 47E9, 45F0, 44F0 and 44F1) may be dropped allowing 3 secondary stations to be sampled on the northern boundary of the survey area at 52E9, 52F0 and 52F1. Contact will be maintained with the other survey participants prior to and during the survey and a decision will be made regarding these additional stations once more information is available. One demersal haul of 30 minutes duration will be made in each of the highlighted statistical rectangles. Trawling will be undertaken during the hours of daylight, which will vary depending on the vessels latitude at any given time. The scanmar system will be used to monitor the headline height, wing spread and door spread for each haul. Bottom contact data from each trawl will also be collected using the NOAA bottom contact sensor, which will be mounted in the centre of the ground-gear. In addition to the routine sampling, biological data will be collected for target species in line with the EU data regulation. All fish will be processed in accordance with Standing Instructions. Hydrography CTD casts will be taken at every trawl station. These provide surface and bottom temperature and salinity information. Reverser bottles affixed to the CTD wire will also be used to collect water samples that will be analysed back at the lab and will provide information on salinities, nitrates, silicates and phosphates. In addition, the ships thermosalinograph will be run continuously throughout the survey and will provide sea surface temperature and salinity data. |
| Chief scientist | Finlay Burns (Marine Scotland Aberdeen Marine Laboratory), James Drewery (Marine Scotland Aberdeen Marine Laboratory) |
| Cruise programme |  (0.13 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North Sea |
| Specific | Northern North Sea |
| Track charts | (0.11 MB) |
