Marine

  • Marine Scotland Science publications for August/September

    7th October 2020 by

    Marine Scotland Science, as a core Scottish Government (SG) Division, is working to support SG’s overall COVID-19 response. It also continues to sustain critical marine science delivery and has over the last couple of months produced the following notable publications.

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  • Scotia gear trials survey – development of new international bottom trawl

    9th December 2019 by

    A team of scientists and gear technologists from Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands are undertaking trials aboard MRV Scotia to develop a replacement demersal survey trawl for internationally coordinated (ICES) bottom trawl surveys. The new trawl is being developed to replace the existing gear (GOV trawl) which has been used for the International Bottom Trawl…

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  • Gear Selectivity in the Moray Firth

    5th November 2019 by

    MRV Alba na Mara Survey 1919A   Duration: 4 – 12 November 2019   Gear: Trawl BT201; Net mounted camera system; Scanmar instrumentation; Seltra box incorporating a 300mm square mesh panel   Objectives: To undertake catch comparison trials using a Seltra sorting box rigged into the extension of the BT201. Target species will be commercial gadoids,…

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  • Hydrographic Sampling in the Northern North Sea

    15th October 2019 by

    MRV Scotia Survey: 1519S Programme Duration: 14-24 October 2019 Gear: Sea-Bird Conductivity Temperature Depth units (CTDs), RBR CTD, Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) and current meter instrumentation, water filtering equipment, mooring equipment, chemistry sampling equipment. Objectives: Test the SBE911 and CTD carousel (main CTD crane) and the SBE25 and Aquatracker (using plankton crane) in the Buchan…

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  • Scotia’s Hunt for Organic Carbon

    21st August 2019 by

    I am a second-year PhD student at the University of St Andrews and was recently very fortunate to be one of the research scientists aboard the Scotia 1019S survey that took us across Scotland’s seas at the end of July. Following an unpredictable summer, we weren’t sure of what to expect weather-wise at sea. However,…

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  • Nephrops on the East Coast – An Update

    20th August 2019 by

    MRV Alba na Mara Programme Survey 1319A Duration: 8-24 August 2019 The annual Alba na Mara East Coast Nephrops Underwater TV survey returns once again.  A very busy week has been spent in the Firth of Forth working under challenging conditions at times, but despite 40kt easterly gales plenty of headway was made with the planned…

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  • Nephrops on the East Coast

    9th August 2019 by

    MRV Alba na Mara Programme   Survey 1319A Duration: 8-24 August 2019   Objectives: To obtain estimates of the distribution and abundance of Nephrops burrows in the Firth of Forth and the Moray Firth using underwater camera. To use the TV footage to record the occurrence of other benthic fauna and evidence of commercial trawling activity….

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  • Blue Carbon in the Marine Ecosystem

    23rd July 2019 by

    MRV Scotia Survey: 1019S Programme Duration: 22-31 July 2019 Objectives: Sediment sampling in the Moray Firth (grabs and cores). Sediment sampling along transect from Moray Firth to Fladen Ground (grabs and cores). Sediment sampling on the Fladen Ground (grabs and cores). Sediment sampling along transect from Fladen to Pentland Firth (grabs and cores). Gravity coring…

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  • Surveying in the Moray Firth Wind Farm Sites

    17th July 2019 by

    Marine Scotland Science (MSS) colleagues and University of Aberdeen (UoA) postgraduate students set sail on the Alba na Mara to undertake a multi-disciplinary survey within the Moray Firth wind farm sites from the 8th – 12th of June 2019.  The aim of this survey was to characterise the distribution of the prey species (fish schools,…

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  • Smolts on the Sunbeam

    23rd May 2019 by

    Scientists from Marine Scotland Science (MSS) are currently undertaking a smolt survey aboard the Fraserburgh pelagic trawler Sunbeam (FR487). The survey runs from 10 – 19 May 2019. The main objective is to survey salmon and sea trout smolt migration routes at various points both inshore and offshore (approx. 45 nmiles) along the Scottish east…

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