The UK’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) 74m research vessel RV Endeavour has been mobilised to perform Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) operations in the North Sea under the auspices of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).
Cefas Endeavour will be under an 18 day charter to the Government of the Netherlands organisations Rijkswater (RWS) and the Institute for Marine Resources & Ecosystem Studies (IMARES) in an attempt to collect data for the assessment of fish stocks and investigate changes in the ecosystem.
Steve Addison, commercial director, Cefas, said: “The Cefas Endeavour is ideally suited to this type of opportunity as it can deliver many scientific activities during the same survey. It’s able to deploy a variety of commercial fishing gears in tandem with water column and seabed acoustic data acquisition and this makes it particularly attractive to customers who require multidisciplinary services from a single vessel.”
Cefas normally utilises the vessel to undertake this type of survey on behalf of the UK Government, so it is well placed to assist other countries in undertaking similar survey activities.
RWS is using Cefas Endeavour in the interim while it upgrades its survey vessel Tridens, which is currently undergoing a major refit which will significantly enhance its capabilities as a research vessel.
This latest project builds on a successful track-record of Cefas and RWS working together and provides both partners an opportunity to develop their partnership further in the longer-term.
