Foreign Vessel Surveys
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 2023
| COUNTRY | VESSEL NAME | LOCATION | CRUISE OBJECTIVES | FROM (DATE) | TO (DATE) | IRISH OBSERVER |
| UK | CEFAS ENDEAVOUR (C END X/23) | Celtic Sea, Bristol Channel and western Channel | The aim is to resume the time-series (2018-2020) groundfish survey across the entire Celtic Sea region and western English Channel | Jan 1st | Mar 2nd | Observer welcome |
| UK | MRV Scotia | ICES Management area VIA | Bottom trawl survey targeting juvenile gadoid species. | Jan 15th | Mar 6th | Observer welcome |
| UK | FV Achilles | Area Vlla - Irish Sea | The objective of this survey is 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 20th | Mar 25th | Observer welcome |
| UK | CEFAS ENDEAVOUR (C END 4/23) | Celtic Sea, Bristol Channel and western Channel | Ground-fish survey using 4m beam trawls operating as part of the internationally-coordinated Working Group on Beam Trawl Surveys (WGBEAM) for southern and western waters and formed part of a coordinated survey with the Republic of Ireland | Feb 26th | Apr 18th | Observer welcome |
| Netherlands | Tridens | Western approaches and West of Ireland | Estimate the spawning stock abundance of Blue Whiting using acoustic methods. | Mar 8th | Apr 13th | Observer welcome |
| Spain | Vizconde de Eza | South Porcupine Sea Bight up to North British Islands | To estimate both the spawning stock biomass and the total biomass at the spawning time of the European blue whiting stock by the echo integration method | March 25th | April 7th | Observer welcome |
|
Norway |
MV Vendla | Atlantic Ocean Northwest of Ireland | Acoustic assessment of the blue whiting spawning stock | Mar 21st | Mar 30th | Observer welcome |
| UK | Scotia | The Rockall Plateau, NW Slope and NW Ireland | To conduct a trawl survey to estimate the abundance and distribution of anglerfish | Apr 14th | Apr 30th | Observer welcome |
| Norway | Fiskebas | Atlantic Ocean West of Ireland & Scotland | Tagging and biological sampling of mackerel | Apr 19th | May 16th | Observer welcome |
| Belgium | RV Belgica | Porcupine Seabight, Southwest of Ireland. | This project studies the sedimentary processes linked to the Belgica mound contourite drift and the Gollum channels in the Porcupine Seabight. | Jun 7th | Jun 24th | Observer welcome |
| UK | RRS Discovery | Whittard Canyon, the canyon interfluves and canyon heads, Lower Whittard Channel | DY166: NMF-MARS Commissioning and Science trials | Jun 18th | Jul 5th | Observer welcome |
| UK | Cefas Endeavour | Irish & Celtic Sea | Irish Sea and Bristol Channel Beam trawl survey | Sep 6th | Sep 25th | Observer welcome |