FFS Walther Herwig III 397
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | FFS Walther Herwig III (06NI) |
| Cruise identifier | 397 |
| Cruise period | 2016-07-21 — 2016-08-18 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Bremerhaven, Germany |
| Port of return | Bremerhaven, Germany |
| Purpose | Fisheries |
| Objectives | Cruise WH 397 covered fisheries research representing the German contribution to the International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) in quarter III, as well as one component of the two‐ship operation in the German Small‐scale Bottom Trawl Survey (GSBTS). Both surveys use the same principle fishing methods but at different spatial scales, applying a GOV otter board trawl. A large subset of the fishing hauls was accompanied by hydrographic measurements and investigations of benthic epifauna, infauna and sediments. Bycatch of marine litter in the GOV is reported. During the sampling for the IBTS Q3, an experiment on the effect of haul duration on the catch composition was extended as decided during the ICES‐IBTS Working Group meeting earlier in 2016. Overall, the cruise WH397 was severely impacted by multiple technical failures aboard the Walther Herwig III and the necessity of returning to port. This shortened the time at sea from 30 to 19 days, and reduced the effective ship time even more. Consequently, the programme of GSBTS had to be reduced to a degree that causes almost complete breaks in the time series within the six standard areas of investigation sampled by this vessel. |
| Chief scientist | Anne Sell (Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries, Hamburg) |
| Project | ICES International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) |
| Coordinating body | International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) |
| Cruise report |  (1.80 MB) |
| NPRC | (0.87 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North Sea |
| Track charts | (0.55 MB) |
