FRV Scotia 0206S
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | FRV Scotia (748S) |
| Cruise identifier | 0206S |
| Cruise period | 2006-01-18 — 2006-01-23 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Aberdeen, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Aberdeen, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | Objectives
To carry out trawl and baited camera survey around the Buzzard platform site. This will include: 1. Baited time lapse camera deployments 2. 2 m beam trawl samples 3. GOV trawl samples Procedure Scotia left Aberdeen harbour at 0700 on Wednesday 18 January, arriving at the control site, east of the Buzzard Development zone (57º48'N, 0º58'W) at 1200. An initial short deployment and recovery of the frame and mooring line in suspended mode, without instrumentation packages was successfully undertaken. Following this, a short, fully instrumented deployment was carried out in order to assess the tidal conditions and check that the camera system was functioning properly. Following the changeover in Scotia's watch, a second, non-instrumented practice deployment was carried out. The first full deployment of the baited camera was made at 1800, before moving off to carry out a beam trawl at a nearby location. Following completion of the beam trawl tow, Scotia returned to the deployment position of the lander, but was unable to locate the dhan buoy. The surface pellet floats were spotted the following morning and the lander recovered. The top part of the dhan buoy pole had been severed and the flag and strobe lost. The data downloaded from the current meter indicated that the mooring had snagged on the bulbous bow of the ship during deployment and been dragged some distance before being released. Once a second dhan buoy had been rigged the baited camera frame was deployed 800 m from the Buzzard platform. A beam trawl was completed and the camera recovered 4 hours later. Additional floatation was added to the surface arrangement before deploying again at the control site. Following recovery of this deployment, poor weather prevented further camera work until Friday morning. Two more baited camera deployments and two beam trawls were completed before 1700 when poor weather again halted work. The baited camera was then deployed at 2200 but poor weather prevented recovery until the following morning when wind and swell had decreased sufficiently. Camera deployments and beam trawling then continued uninterrupted until midday on Sunday when the first fishing tow was undertaken to the west of the platform, close to the 500 m perimeter. Subsequent problems with the trawl winches prevented the control fishing tows being completed and a further 2 camera deployments were carried out with time being used in between deployment and recovery by the ship's engineers to investigate the problem with the winches. The final camera deployment was brought onboard at 2330 before Scotia made way towards Aberdeen, coming alongside the harbour at 0730 on Monday 23 January. |
| Chief scientist | Emma Jones (Fisheries Research Services Aberdeen Marine Laboratory) |
| Project | MF06s |
| Coordinating body | FRS |
| Cruise report |  (0.02 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North Sea |
| Specific | Buzzard platform region, North Sea |
| Measurements | |
| Biology and fisheries | |
| Demersal fish | Quantity: number of hauls = 7 Description: Six beam trawls and one GOV trawl were undertaken during the cruise. |
| Geology and geophysics | |
| Bottom photography | Quantity: number of deployments = 14 Description: A number of baited camera deployments took place during the cruise. |
