Marine

  • Half-way there! Monitoring the West Shetland Shelf

    9th September 2019 by

    MRV Scotia Survey: 1219S (Times given are in Coordinated Universal Time (abbreviated to UTC), 24-hour format throughout.) With a full complement of staff aboard, including 19 officers and crew and a team of 11 scientists from Marine Scotland Science (MSS), the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and the National Museum of Scotland, MRV Scotia departed…

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  • Prey Species across Smith Bank

    30th August 2019 by

    MRV Alba na Mara Survey: 1419A Programme Duration: 27-30 August 2019 Locations: Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited (BOWL); Moray East Offshore Windfarm (MEOW); Moray West Offshore Windfarm (MWOW). Objectives Primary Objectives: Study the distribution of prey species (fish schools and zooplankton patches) across Smith Bank in relation to data available from BOWL post-construction digital aerial surveys…

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  • We’ll be back! Our Return to the West Shetland Shelf

    30th August 2019 by

    MRV Scotia Survey: 1219S Programme Duration: 26 August – 11 September 2019 Introduction The survey plan outlines the monitoring survey requirements for West Shetland Shelf (WSS) Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). WSS has been identified for monitoring survey effort following discussion between Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and Marine Scotland Science (MSS), taking into…

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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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  • Scotia Amongst the Fjords

    5th August 2019 by

    I was one of 11 scientists on-board the MRV Scotia seeking to better understand carbon dynamics in the sediments and water column around Scotland. My personal goal was to sample sea lochs (fjords) around the northern and western coast of Scotland. Fjords are globally recognised as hotspots for the burial and storage of organic carbon…

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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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  • Getting to know the Herring and Sprat

    19th July 2019 by

    MRV Scotia Survey: 0919S Programme Duration: 27 June – 19 July 2019 Sampling Gear: Midwater trawls PT160 x 3 Demersal trawl (BT237) Scanmar trawl eye sensor SIMRAD FS70 net sonde x 2 RBR-Concerto CTD with Dissolved Oxygen probe Water sampler for collecting water samples from bottom of CTD dips GoPro cameras x 2 with underwater…

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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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  • Nephrops Burrowing Complexes; Part Two

    28th June 2019 by

    The Nephrops TV survey continued through the South Minch without any issues and experienced some impressive sunsets. Due to a poor weather forecast, the vessel made way for Stanton Bank a little earlier than originally planned and recovered/deployed a COMPASS mooring in the south of the region (which had an even larger squid cluster than…

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