FV Altaire 0321H
Cruise plan
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | FV Altaire (746A) |
| Cruise identifier | 0321H |
| Cruise period | 2021-06-07 — 2021-06-22 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Peterhead, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Peterhead, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | Objectives
1. Carry out standalone exploratory mackerel egg survey, spanning the area of the Northern North Sea and further North up and along the Norwegian Shelf from 60 N to 70 N. 2. Opportunistic trawling for adult mackerel to collect biological information on individuals within the survey area and also to collect fecundity samples in order to progress ongoing research being undertaken within the region. Procedures Loading of the vessel will take place early on the morning of 7 June in Peterhead and all being well Altaire will depart Peterhead late morning undertaking the 200nm steam North to the first icthyoplankton station located just East of Muckle Flugga at 60 45N 00 40W. Prior to commencing the first plankton Altaire will undertake a series of flowmeter calibrations in order to check the performance of the sampler and in particular the flowmeters and also the scanmar sensor. Once successfully completed Altaire will survey in an eastwards direction on the same latitude and with icthyoplankton stations being completed every 0.5 degree longitude until almost within sight of the Nowegian coast. Altaire will then head North before commencing a new transect heading back west across the North Sea at 61o 45N towards Tampen. Once this transect is completed that will conclude the part of the survey feeding directly into the North Sea mackerel egg survey dataset. Northwards from here the survey will operate as an exploratory survey with spacing between icthyoplankton stations increasing to one degree longitude when on transects in order to maximise area coverage up and along the Norwegian Shelf and with western transect boundaries being explored as far as is practicable in order to try and map the spawning distribution within the Northeastern region. Double alternate transect methodology will be utilised when heading Northwards during the exploratory survey. This is undertaken in order to maximise deployment time during the return leg of the survey and minimise the time spent steaming back to port. Plankton stations will be sampled using the Gulf VII sampler with mounted CTD which will record salinity and temperature during each deployment. The plankton tows will require the vessel to deploy the sampler at and maintain a speed of four knots. The sampler will then be lowered at a steady rate (ten seconds/metre) from the plankton crane to a maximum depth of 200m. The sampler will then be recovered at the same speed and rate. Once aboard, plankton samples will be washed from the sampler net, fixed in formalin, sorted and subsequently scored for egg abundance with mackerel eggs also being staged according to their development. Trawl deployments will be taken at the discretion of the scientist in charge but will not exceed 8 trawls for the survey. Altaire will return to Peterhead for unloading on the morning of the 22 June 2021. |
| Chief scientist | Finlay Burns (Marine Scotland Aberdeen Marine Laboratory) |
| Cruise programme |  (0.11 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North Sea Norwegian Sea |
| Specific | Northern North Sea, Norwegian Shelf (60N to 70N) |
