Foreign Vessel Surveys
A number of Foreign Marine Scientific Research (FMSR) programs 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 the surveys as the Irish Observer onboard, please see details of our Foreign Vessel Observer Scheme to check that you qualify and how to apply.
FOREIGN MARINE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH SURVEYS 2025
| COUNTRY | VESSEL NAME | LOCATION | CRUISE OBJECTIVES | FROM (DATE) | TO (DATE) | IRISH OBSERVER |
| UK | Scotia | ICES management area 6A | Bottom trawl survey targeting commercial gadoid as and other commercial species within ICES Subarea 6a | Feb 13th | Mar 7th | Observer confirmed |
| Norway | VIKINGBANK & M.YTTERSTAD | Porcupine Bank and southeast of Rockall Bank | Catch limitation devices in the blue whiting fisheries | Feb 11th | Mar 24th | Survey completed |
| UK | Cefas Endeavour | Celtic Sea, Bristol Channel and western Channel | This survey targets sole and plaice in the entire western Channel and the Celtic Sea areas and currently provides survey indices datasets for both species in the western Channel | Feb 17th | April 10th | Observer confirmed |
| UK | CORYSTES | Area Vlla – Irish Sea and St George’s Channel | Agriculture Food and Biosiences Institute Irish Sea and St Georges Channel Quarter 1 March 2025 Ground-fish survey | Mar 3rd | Mar 25th | Survey completed |
| Netherlands | Tridens | Western Approaches and West of Ireland | Blue Whiting Survey. Estimate the spawning stock abundance of Blue Whiting using acoustic methods. | Mar 10th | Apr 4th | Observer confirmed |
| Spain | B/O Angeles Alvariño | UK Irish EEZ, Irish EEZ | Triennial Mackerel and Horse Mackerel Egg Surveys | Mar 19th | Mar 28th | Survey completed |
| Norway | MV VENDLA-LCYN | Atlantic Ocean northwest of Ireland | Acoustic assessment of the blue whiting spawning stock | Mar 19th | Apr 3rd | Survey completed |
| Denmark | Jákup Sverri | South of the Faroes, south west of the Hebrides | Assess the spawning stock of blue whiting in April as part of the joint international blue whiting survey (IBWSS) on the spawning grounds west of the British Isles, the Porcupine Bank and the Rockall Bank. | Mar 27th | Apr 9th | Survey completed |
| Germany | TARAJOQ | West Ireland and Porcupine Bank, the Celtic Sea, Northern part of the Bay of Biscay | Mackerel and Horse Mackerel Egg Survey | Mar 27th | April 27th | Survey completed |
| UK | Cefas Endeavour | Celtic Sea, Bristol Channel and western Channel | This survey targets sole and plaice in the entire western Channel and the Celtic Sea areas and currently provides survey indices datasets for both species in the western Channel | Apr 4th | Apr 30th | Survey completed |
| Norway | FISKEBAS | Atlantic Ocean West of Ireland and Scotland | Tagging Mackerel with RFID tags and Biological Sampling of Mackerel | Apr 10th | Jun 10th | Survey completed |
| UK | MV Altaire | West of Scotland/Ireland | Mackerel and Horse Mackerel Egg Survey of the Northeast Atlantic (Scottish component Period 4). | Apr 10th | Arp 25th | Survey completed |
| UK | Scotia | ICES management areas 4a, 6a and 6b | 0425S – 2025 Scottish Irish Anglerfish Megrim Industry Science Survey (SIAMISS) | Apr 18th | May 5th | Survey completed |
| Germany | MARIA S. MERIAN | Irish EEZ | Along and across slope transport of organic matter and sediment off western Ireland - LONTRA | Apr 26th | May 4th | Observer confirmed |
| Netherlands | Tridens | North Atlantic Ocean, Celtic Sea and Bay of Biscay. | Mackerel and Horse mackerel egg survey May 2025 | May 5th | May 23rd | Observer confirmed |
| UK | Scotia | West of Scotland/Ireland as well as west to Rockall Bank/Trough and Hatton Bank | Icthyoplankton survey sampling the water column (no deeper than 200m) for mackerel and horse mackerel eggs. | May 9th | May 25th | Survey completed |
| Norway | Statsraad Lehmkuhl | Atlantic ocean, north west passage, Pacific Ocean and west coast of the US | One Ocean Expedition 2025 - 2026 | May 14th | May 20th | Survey completed |
| UK | RRS Discovery | South and West of Ireland. | The CARES project will fill these holes in our knowledge of the marine atmospheric sulfur cycle through a combination of intensive aircraft and ship observations as well as multi-scale model experiments. | May 25th | Jun 26th | Observer confirmed |
| UK | RRS James Cook | NE Atlantic, west of the UK and Ireland (High Seas) | Scientific research and technology demonstration on the High Seas at the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory | Jun 1st | Jun 23rd | Observer confirmed |
| Netherlands | Tridens | North Atlantic Ocean, Celtic Sea and Bay of Biscay. | Mackerel and Horse mackerel egg survey June 2025 | Jun 2nd | June 20th | Observer confirmed |
| UK | CORYSTES | Western Irish Sea and NI North Coast | Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute Queen Scallop survey | Jul 2nd | Jul 11th | Survey completed |
| UK | RRS Discovery | Whittard Canyon | Processes drIving Submarine Canyon fluxES (PISCES) | Jul 3rd | Jul 5th | One berth available for an Observer |
| UK | MV Altaire | West of Scotland/Ireland as well as Celtic Sea and Northern Biscay | July Mackerel and Horse Mackerel Egg Survey of the Northeast Atlantic (Scottish component Period 7) | Jul 8th | Jul 28th | Observer confirmed |
| UK | CORYSTES | Western Irish Sea Oceanographic Mooring Malin Shelf | To maintain the AFBI oceanographic mooring in the western Irish Sea | Jul 15th | Jul 25th | Survey completed |
| UK | CORYSTES | Area Vlla – Western Irish Sea | This cruise forms part of an ongoing study of the abundance and population dynamics of Irish Sea Nephrops. | Jul 29th | Aug 7th | Survey completed |
| UK | ISLAY 1 | Sea of the Hebrides, Scotland, the Rockall Trough and the Hatton Bank | Wireless Interrogation of Seabed Pressure Array (WISPA): 2025 Autonaut mission | Aug 1st | Oct 31st | Observers confirmed |
| UK | CORYSTES | Area Vlla – Irish Sea | This cruise forms part of an ongoing study of the population dynamics of Nephrops of the Irish Sea. | Aug 15th | Aug 19th | Survey completed |
| UK | CORYSTES | Western Irish Sea Oceanographic Mooring | To maintain the AFBI oceanographic mooring in the western Irish Sea | Aug 21st | Aug 25th | Survey completed |
| UK | Scotia | ICES management areas VIb (Rockall Bank) | Bottom trawl survey for primarily haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), but to include other fish species within ICES Subarea VIb (Rockall Bank). | Aug 28th | Sep 10th | Survey completed |
| UK | CORYSTES | Area Vlla – Irish Sea and St George’s Channel | Irish Sea pelagic acoustic Survey 2025: An acoustic assessment, along a series of pre determined transects in order to estimate, distribution, abundance and population structure of herring and sprat in the Irish Sea | Sep 1st | Sep 10th | Observer confirmed |
| UK | Endeavour | Irish Sea and Celtic Sea (Whole area) | To carry out a 4m beam-trawl survey of groundfish to i) obtain fisheries independent data on the distribution and abundance of commercial flatfish species, and ii) derive age compositions of sole, plaice, cod and whiting for use in the assessments of stock size. | Sep 1st | Oct 1st | Survey completed |
| Spain | Vizconde De Eza | Porcupine Bank | The Porcupine Bottom Trawl Survey aims to collect data on the distribution and relative abundance, and biological information of commercial fish in Porcupine bank area. | Sep 8th | Oct 14th | Survey completed |
| UK | Scotia | Irish and Scottish continental shelf slope between Donegal and NW Lewis. | Demersal trawl survey of fish species on the continental slope and adjacent areas. | Sep 15th | Oct 2nd | Observer confirmed |
| Spain | SARMIENTO DE GAMBOA | North East European margins of the Atlantic Ocean | MORIA (Mediterranean Outflow Reach and Impact into the north Atlantic: present and past variability using neodymium isotopes) |
Sep 16th | Oct 11th | Survey completed |
| UK | RRS Discovery | Whittard Canyon system, The Canyons Marine Conservation Zone, Greater Haig Fras Marine Conservation Zone and UK Celtic Shelf, both in UK waters | 1.Long-term observations for the AtlantiS programme, focusing on two research areas connected to Marine Conservation Zones: a. Greater Haig Fras Marine Conservation Zone b. Whittard Canyon and The Canyons Marine Conservation Zone |
Sep 23rd | Oct 12th | Survey completed |
| UK | CORYSTES | Western Irish Sea | To maintain the AFBI oceanographic mooring in the western Irish Sea (Lat: 53.78333; Long: -5.63333) | Sep 28th | Oct 2nd | Survey completed |
| France | Thalassa | Bay of Biscay and Celtic Sea | EVHOE2025: French Bottom Trawl Surveys | Oct 17th | Dec 1st | One berth available for an Observer |
| UK | CORYSTES | Western Irish Sea | To maintain the AFBI oceanographic mooring in the western Irish Sea (Lat: 53.78333; Long: -5.63333) | Nov 27th | Nov 30th | One berth available for an Observer |
| UK | Scotia | ICES management area 6A | Bottom Trawl Survey targeting commercial gadoids and other demersal species within ICES Subarea 6A to assess pre-recruit year class strengths of cod, haddock, whiting, Norway pout, mackerel and herring | Nov 7th | Dec 1st | Observer confirmed |
| FOREIGN MARINE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH SURVEYS 2026 | ||||||
| UK | CORYSTES | Western Irish Sea | To maintain the AFBI oceanographic mooring in the western Irish Sea | 7th Jan | 13th Jan | One berth available for an Observer |
| UK | CORYSTES | Western Irish Sea | To maintain the AFBI oceanographic mooring in the western Irish Sea | 16th Feb | 23rd Feb | One berth available for an Observer |
| UK | Scotia | ICES management area 6A | Bottom Trawl Survey targeting commercial gadoids and other demersal species within ICES Subarea 6A | Feb 16th | Mar 10th | One berth available for an Observer |
| UK | Endeavour | Celtic Sea, Bristol Channel and western Channel | This is a ground-fish survey using two 4m beam trawls operating as part of the internationally-coordinated Working Group on Beam Trawl Surveys (WGBEAM) for southern and western waters. | Feb 23rd | Mar 27th | One berth available for an Observer |
| Netherlands | Tridens | Western Approaches and West Ireland | International Blue Whiting Survey | 9th Mar | 3rd Apr | One berth available for an Observer |