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.
Please note we are not accepting applications for the Observer Scheme until further notice due to COVID 19.
FOREIGN MARINE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH SURVEYS 2021
| COUNTRY | VESSEL NAME | LOCATION | CRUISE OBJECTIVES | FROM (DATE) | TO (DATE) | IRISH OBSERVER |
| UK | RRS James Cook | NOC Porcupine Abyssal Plain Site | Understanding of the Earth as an integrated system through fostering new insights on ocean carbon cycling | April 15th | May 31st | N/A |
| UK/USA | Discovery | PAP site region | Sample the demise of the annual spring bloom | May 1st | June 1st | N/A |
| Germany | ATAIR 006 | Southwestern Irish Shelf/Goban Spur | Water mass variability & transports in the Eastern basin of the subpolar North Atlantic | May 30th | June 8th | N/A |
| Norway | FISKABAS | Atlantic Ocean and Scotland | Fishing, tagging, & releasing ca 30000-50000 mackerel. Bio sampling of ca 1000 mackerel | May 5th | June 3rd | N/A |
| UK | Discovery | Rockall Trough | To release a biologically inert chemical tracer to investigate long term mixing processes. | June 19th | July 29th | TBC |
| UK | Seaglider | Malin Shelf | A network of oceanographic & acoustic moorings within & adjacent to cross-border marine protected areas | July | Oct | TBC |
| UK | Endeavour | Irish & Celtic Sea | To carry out a 4m beam-trawl survey of groundfish 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 |