FFS Solea 750
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | FFS Solea (06SL) |
| Cruise identifier | 750 |
| Cruise period | 2018-06-29 — 2018-07-19 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Cuxhaven, Germany |
| Port of return | Cuxhaven, Germany |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | The survey was part of an international hydroacoustic survey providing information on stock parameters of small pelagics (Acoustic Survey in the Skagerrak and Kattegat, the North Sea, West of Scotland and the Malin Shelf area, HERAS) coordinated by the ICES Working Group of International Pelagic Surveys (WGIPS). Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Scotland also participated in the survey. In general, this survey provides the most important fisheries independent contribution to the assessment of herring stocks in the North Sea, Western Baltic Sea, Skagerrak/Kattegat as well as areas west of Scotland and the Irish Sea. The total survey area largely covers ICES Divisions IIIa, IVa, IVb and VIa. The survey design has been standardized across participants and the survey area is partitioned into 23 strata out of which four strata comprising the southern North Sea have been allocated to Germany and were covered during this survey. Main focus was set on herring (Clupea harengus) and sprat (Sprattus sprattus), whereas distribution patterns and abundance of anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) as well as pilchard (Sardina pilchardus) were another objective of the survey. The distribution of backscatter values allocated to clupeid fishes was similar to previous years with highest concentrations of schools in the southern strata and along coastal areas. Altogether, 2074 nautical miles of hydroacoustic transects were covered. To allocate biological information to echorecordings and for the collection of biological samples, 39 fishery hauls were conducted. |
| Chief scientist | Matthias Schaber (Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries, Bremerhaven) |
| Coordinating body | International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) |
| Cruise report |  (2.04 MB) |
| NPRC | (8.74 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North Sea |
