A number of foreign marine scientific research programmes (FMSR) are undertaken in Irish waters each year. Summary details of the surveys are available in the table below.
If you're interested in participating in any of these surveys as the Irish Observer onboard, please see details of our Foreign Vessel Observer Scheme to check that you qualify.
All observers are required to comply with current Covid-19 safety regulations and protocols on board the relevant vessel.
FOREIGN MARINE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH SURVEYS 2021
| COUNTRY | VESSEL NAME | LOCATION | CRUISE OBJECTIVES | FROM (DATE) | TO (DATE) | IRISH OBSERVER |
| UK | MRV Scotia | ICES Management area VIA | Bottom trawl survey targeting juvenile gadoid species. | Feb 17th | Mar 10th | TBC |
| UK | Achilles | Area Vlla - Irish Sea | To estimate the distribution, abundance and population structure of cod, haddock and whiting in the Irish Sea by semi-pelagic trawling, using commercial fishing gear | Feb 25th | Mar 25th | TBC |
| Norway | Vikingbank | Porcupine bank & South East of Rockall bank | To test catch regulation devices for limiting catch sizes and conduct underwater observations of the fishing gear. | Mar 8th | Mar 26th | TBC |
| Netherlands | Tridens | Western approaches & West of Ireland | Estimate the spawning stock abundance of Blue Whiting using acoustic methods | Mar 10th | Apr 15th | TBC |
| UK | Queen of Ulster | Donegal Coast | A total of 33 Acoustic Listening Stations (ALS) are planned to be deployed at different locations off the coast of Co. Donegal | Mar 15th | Mar 26th | TBC |
| Spain | Vizconde de Eza/Miquel Oliver | South Porcupine bank and Porcupine Seabigh | International Blue Whiting spawning stock survey (IBWSS) | Mar 17th | Mar 28th | TBC |
| Norway | MV Vendla | Atlantic Ocean Northwest of Ireland | Acoustic assessment of blue whiting spawning stock. And Observations on hydrography. | Mar 24th | Apr 2nd | TBC |
| UK | RRS Discovery | Porcupine Abyssal and Whittard Canyon | The cruise will also recover and redeploy a mooring (acoustic Doppler current meters, CTD instruments [microcats], time-series sampling sediment trap). | Mar 25th | Apr 14th | TBC |
| UK | RRS James Cook | NOC Porcupine Abyssal Plain site | EXPORTS will foster new insights on ocean carbon cycling that maximizes its societal relevance through the achievement of U.S. and International research agency goals. | Apr 15th | May 31st | TBC |
| UK/USA | Discovery | PAP site region | The aim of the EXPORTS 2021 North Atlantic deployment is to sample the demise of the annual spring bloom. | May 1st | Jun 1st | TBC |
| Norway | FISKABAS | Atlantic Ocean and Scotland | Fishing, tagging and releasing ca 30000-50000 mackerel. Biological sampling of ca 1000 mackerel | May 5th | Jun 3rd | TBC |
| Germany | ATAIR | Southwestern Irish Shelf, Goban Spur & French Shelf in the Atlantic | Physical Oceanography - water mass variability & transports in the Eastern basin of the subpolar North Atlantic. | Jun 1st | Jun 14th | TBC |
| UK | Discovery | Rockall Trough | Bottom Boundary Layer Turbulence and Abyssal Recipes (BLT Recipes) | Jun 19th | Jul 29th | TBC |
| UK | Endeavour | Irish Sea and Bristol Channel | To carry out a 4m beam-trawl survey of ground fish to obtain fisheries data. | Sep 1st | Oct 1st | TBC |
| Spain | VIZCONDE DE EZA | Atlantic: Porcupine bank | Abundance estimations and distribution patterns of demersal-Benthic species. | Sep 3rd | Oct 5th | TBC |
| UK | RV Scotia | Rockall bank | Bottom trawl survey targeting juvenile gadoid species on Rockall bank | Sep 9th | Sep 19th | TBC |
| UK | Queen of Ulster | North West of Ireland | Retrieval of acoustic array in the North West of Ire.(SeaMonitor - EU Interreg VA Project) | Sep 20th | Oct 10th | TBC |
| UK | MRV Scotia | ICES Mgt area Vla & Vlb | Bottom trawl survey targeting commercial species on the continental slope. | Sep 22nd | Oct 5th | TBC |
| UK | Discovery | Rockall Trough | Bottom Boundary Layer Turbulence and Abyssal Recipes (BLT Recipes) | Sep 25th | Oct 30th | TBC |
| France | Thalassa | Celtic Sea & Bay of Biscay | French Bottom Trawl Surveys in Bay of Biscay and Celtic Sea | Nov 10th | Dec 5th | Open for applications by Oct 8th |
| UK | Discovery | North Atlantic | The purpose of this project is to commission the newly installed SBP27 system | Nov 6th | Nov 14th | TBC |
| UK | MRV Scotia | Scottish and Irish West Coast | Demersal trawling survey to assess pre-recruit year class strengths of cod, haddock, whiting, Norway pout, mackerel and herring. | Nov 17th | Dec 4th | TBC |