RV Cefas Endeavour 5/09
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RV Cefas Endeavour (74E9) |
| Cruise identifier | 5/09 |
| Cruise period | 2009-03-16 — 2009-04-04 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Portland Harbour, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Falmouth, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | Aims
To carry out a multidisciplinary survey of the Western Channel waters for the purposes of stock assessment monitoring, examining the effectiveness and capabilities of multidisciplinary monitoring on Endeavour, the stratified random survey design and collecting ecosystem level information. Narrative RV CEFAS Endeavour was due to sail from Portland on the 16th of March, but due to the working time directive (on the ships side), it was not possible to start sampling out of Portland. Instead, we sailed west to the first station south of Land's End. The first station was completed with all scientific staff on deck to ensure consistency throughout the survey. Completion of the station lasted 13 hours in part due to glitches in the gear associated with the set up. This included the first of the JNCC camera tows. Nevertheless, some changes needed to be made to the sampling protocol. The number of SPI deployments and cores was reduced to three a station as habitat on a station was found to be much less variable than anticipated. Sampling of infauna could not be carried out effectively at sea so samples were stored instead. As staff familiarised themselves with the sampling over the next couple of days, times on station were reduced to less than 4 hours. However, this left little time for the JNCC observer to collect information since the protocol required speeds of greater than 4 knots. During the following 3 days, we worked our way around the western part of the grid catching considerable numbers of monk and megrim with some very good catches of sole inshore around the area of Mounts Bay in very fine weather. Coring and SPI work indicated course shell and sandy habitats with little indication of an anoxic layer on all but the most inshore stations, uniformly distributed over the tows. The light sensitive camera mounted on the beam to observe habitats was severely damaged by an impact. The camera itself could be repaired, but the mounting was beyond |
| Chief scientist | Sven Richard Kupschus (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science Lowestoft Laboratory) |
| Cruise programme |  (0.02 MB) |
| Cruise report | (0.40 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | English Channel |
| Specific | Western Channel (ICES area VIIE) |
| Track charts | (0.06 MB) |
