Irish Fisheries Acoustic Survey

The Western European Shelf Pelagic Acoustic Survey (WESPAS) survey program is the consolidation of two existing survey programs carried out by Fisheries Ecosystems Advisory Service (FEAS) in the Marine Institute. The Main Shelf herring acoustic survey has been carried out annually since 2008 and reports on the annual abundance of summer feeding aggregations of herring to the west of Scotland and north of Ireland.

The boarfish survey has been carried out since 2011 using a chartered fishing vessel and reports on the abundance of spawning aggregations of boarfish 47N to 57N. In 2016 both surveys were combined providing synoptic coverage of shelf waters from 59N southwards to 47N. The 2017 survey took place over 2 legs; leg one was from 6th - 29th June, and leg 2 (this cruise) from 4th - 21 July 2017 on board the R.V. Celtic Explorer. Age stratified relative stock abundance estimates of boarfish, herring and horse mackerel within the survey area were calculated using acoustic data and biological data from trawl sampling.

Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) data was acquired at predetermined stations. Zooplankton sampling was carried out alongside CTD stations. Marine mammal and seabird visual surveys were also conducted.

Alternate title: CE17011 Fisheries Acoustic Survey - The Western European Shelf Pelagic Acoustic Survey (WESPAS) Leg 2

Date (Creation): 2017-07-03

Date (Revision): 2018-11-29

Date (Publication): 2017-11-09

Citation identifier: MI / ie.marine.data:dataset.851

Status: On going

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Marine Institute		datarequests@marine.ie	Originator

Maintenance and update frequency: As needed

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

Oceanographic geographical features

Spatial scope

National

AtlantOS Essential Variables

Atmospheric pressure
Air temperature
Wind direction
Wind speed

ICES Platform Codes

Celtic Explorer

Marine Strategy Framework Directive descriptors 2010/477/EU

Biological diversity maintained
Commercial fish and shellfish populations are healthy
Marine food webs are at normal abundance and diversity

Marine Strategy Framework Directive criteria 2010/477/EU

Population condition
Level of pressure of the fishing activity
Reproductive capacity of the stock
Population age and size distribution
Productivity of key species or trophic groups
Proportion of selected species at the top of food webs

Marine Strategy Framework Directive indicators 2010/477/EU

Population demographic characteristics
Fishing mortality
Ratio between catch and biomass index
Spawning Stock Biomass
Biomass indices
Proportion of fish larger than the mean size of first sexual maturation
Mean maximum length across all species
95% percentile of the fish length distribution
Size at first sexual maturation
Performance of key predator species
Large fish proportion

SeaDataNet device categories

SeaVoX Platform Categories

research vessel

SeaVoX Device Catalogue

Vaisala HMP temperature and humidity sensor
Simrad EK-60 echosounder
anemometer
1-metre ring net

BODC Parameter Usage Vocabulary

Date (time from 00:00 01/01/1760 to 00:00 UT on day)
Abundance of biological entity specified elsewhere per unit length sampled of the water body
Depth (spatial coordinate) relative to water surface in the water body
Latitude north
Longitude east
Pressure (measured variable) exerted by the atmosphere
Relative humidity of the atmosphere
Temperature of the atmosphere
Speed of wind (gust) {wind speed} in the atmosphere
Direction (from) of wind relative to True North {wind direction} in the atmosphere
Speed of wind {wind speed} in the atmosphere
Orientation (horizontal relative to true north) of measurement platform {heading} by unspecified GPS system
Orientation (pitch) of measurement platform by inclinometer

Marine Institute Dataset Communities

Dataset Collection Activity

Place

Ireland

Specific usage: Oceanographic geographical features INSPIRE

User contact info

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Marine Institute		datarequests@marine.ie	User

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: no limitations to public access

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: no conditions to access and use

Other constraints: CC BY 4.0

Other constraints: This layer is published under the terms of the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). [ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ]