CEFAS21-116 ITT for the provision of an International Ecosystem Survey in the Nordic Sea

This contract is for a pelagic trawler, suitably equipped to participate in an acoustic-trawl survey. The survey is part of the international IESNS (International Ecosystem Survey in the Nordic Sea), a collaboration between Icelandic, Faroe, Norwegian, EU and UK research institutes which has been conducted since 1997. The survey is carried out in order to investigate distribution and migrations of the Norwegian Spring-spawning herring, blue whiting and other pelagic fish, and to produce a biomass index for herring and a recruitment index for blue whiting. The survey will cover the southern end of the distributional range of the spring-spawning herring population. Furthermore, hydrographic conditions and plankton distribution will be estimated to investigate the influence of the environmental conditions and prey availability on the target fish species.