Herring Acoustic Survey: more Norway pout and mackerel test trawls

The start of the second survey week saw a continuation of the Norway pout observations seen in the previous week already. On the western side of the 5th transect, the net was shot at some marks on the sea bed:

haul 11: 07/07/2014 @ 13:08 UTC (57º18'N 0º29'W)

The catch consisted predominantly of Norway pout, with a few sandeel. The pout was now a bit bigger than in the previous catches.

catch of Norway pout

The observed distributions of Norway pout are mainly located in the western part of the Dutch survey area. So far we have seen them on every transect. Below you can see a map showing the acoustic densities of Norway pout (red circles) and herring (black circles) recorded so far in the survey:

And the Norway pout story continued yesterday at the Devil's holes, when another haul targeted at some larger aggregations revealed a catch dominated by that species:

haul 14: 08/07/2014 @ 13:48 UTC (56º47'N 0º12'E)

Yesterday morning, we were accompanied by a school of white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris). There were about 10-20 of them hunting fish in the distance. But 3 of them started to swim along the ship right next to our towed body for a while:

During the survey we also perform a number of test trawls close to the surface to fish for mackerel. Atlantic mackerel are now distributed in surface waters over a vast area stretching from Greenland, to Icelandic waters, and throughout the Norwegian Sea. A dedicated survey conducted by Norway, Iceland and the Faeroe Islands is trying to map the distribution and abundance of mackerel. However, the waters around Britain, Ireland and the North Sea have not been sampled a lot so far. We therefore try to take a few samples in our survey area.

During these surface trawls the net camera was again in action. So far, we have taken two such trawls (each with a standard towing time of 30 minutes), which both caught a few baskets of mackerel: