Marine

Clean Seas Environmental Monitoring Programme

January 8, 2020 by Marine Directorate Communications No Comments | Category Marine Directorate general, Marine Directorate Science, Research Vessel Surveys

MRV Scotia Programme
Survey: 0120S
Duration: 6-21 January 2020
Fishing gear: BT 137 with Ground gear E;
Sediment Sampling: Day grab
Litter sampling: Catamaran and neuston trawl
Water sampling: Aquatracka fluorometer, Seabird 25 and modified acoustic sledge

Objectives:

1. To undertake water, sediment and biological sampling for the Clean Seas Environmental Monitoring Programme (CSEMP).
2. Monitor and record all litter brought aboard in all trawls. Sample water column and sediment for micro-plastic litter. Collect fish guts and any other biota of interest for microplastic research.
3. If possible, deploy Aquatracka and Seabird 25 to collect fluorescence data.

 Procedure:

Scientific staff will join the vessel on 05 January 2020 to conduct final set-up of scientific equipment. After required drills, the vessel will depart Leith (am) on 06 January and head for the nearest sampling station as agreed with the master and fishing master. The order in which sampling stations will be undertaken will be agreed on a daily basis and in line with current weather conditions.

Fish sampling for biological effect assessment will be carried out at multiple locations detailed in Table 1.

Due to a lack of sites in certain sampling regions, new sites (in red in Table 1) will be tested and assessed for the collection of dab (in Central Minch, North of Coll and West of Orkney). If successful, the target species will be sampled for biological effect assessment and chemistry analysis.

Fish will be sampled for chemical analyses, biological effects and fish diseases (Table 2). Some biological effects measurements will be carried out during the survey.

Sediment sampling will be carried out at the Montrose bank, East coast, Inner and Outer Moray Firth, Minch North, Minch South, Colonsay, Outer Hebrides, Sea of Hebrides and Solway sites. Sediment sampling will also be carried out at the four CSEMP fixed sites (NMMP85 – North Minch, NMMP95 – Inner Moray Firth, NMMP105 – Outer Moray Firth, NMMP165 – Montrose Bank) (see Map 1). Sediments will be sampled for chemical analyses at all locations. The coordinates of all sediments site is shown in Table 3 (Primary sites) and Table 4 (Secondary sites – used if Sampling a Primary site failed).

Sediment sampling will also be attempted in the West of Orkney (exact location to be confirmed – see green circle on (Map 1) to add another sampling site on the CSEMP programme.

Monitoring of all litter brought on board during trawling operations will continue throughout the survey. The catamaran will be deployed to sample for micro-plastics whenever possible (exact high priority locations to be confirmed) and samples processed onboard as far as possible. Additional sediment samples will also be taken for micro-plastics where possible. Fish guts and any other biota of interest might also be preserved and returned to the lab for analysis (exact sampling requirements to be confirmed)

The Aquatracka will be deployed in the Forth and in at least one other area to obtain reference measurements. Vertical profiling will be performed and tows using the modified acoustic sledge will also be tested.

Table 3: Sediment grabs locations – PRIMARY SITES.

Table 4: Sediment grabs locations – SECONDARY SITES

Map 1. Sediment sites location

Additional Information:

• Marine Scotland Website
• MRV Scotia Topic Sheet
• MRV Scotia 2019 Blog Posts 

Tags: #marinescience, biological effect assessment, Clean Seas Environmental Monitoring Programme, micro-plastic litter, Scotia

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