Objectives. The agreed work tasks included the following: To conduct an acoustic fishing survey for small pelagic fish on the shelf; to conduct pilot trawl-surveys on the demersal fish stocks, and conduct trawling experiments on promising occurrences of demersal fish, deep water shrimp and langostinos. As a follow-up of the previous survey it was decided, when time and weather conditions would allow, to test the availability of squid just off the shelf with light and jigging. The hydrographic work carried out in Panama and Costa Rica during the previous survey was to be repeated and two new sections to be set out in Colombia.
Survey plan. The plan was to start at the southern border of Colombia and work northwards, cover the Gulf of Panama , and then proceed westwards along the coast of Panama and Costa Rica. Generally the acoustic transects were laid out with a spacing 10 nm apart. This is representative for the densest survey grid used in the course of the "Dr. Fridtjof Nansen" programme. During the survey, fishing was carried out to identify the acoustic registrations. In addition, preallocated trawl stations were distributed on the shelf during daylight hours as part of a concurrant trawl survey. In Costa Rica, no bottom trawling in depths less than 100 meters was permitted. As a consequence of this, no identification of acoustic registrations close to the seabed could be made, and no trawl survey was carried out.
Scientific staff: The following participated from the region;
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Colombia : |
Guillermo Barreto, Hermes Mojica (until 2 May) |
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Panama : |
Edwin Medina, Elvis Nieto. (from 3 May)] |
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Costa Rica: |
Hubert Araya, Mario Quiros. From FAO : Luis Villegas,
Gabriella Bianchi and Martina Schneider. |
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The scientific staff of IMR was: Tore Stromme, Helge Ullebust,
Oeivind Torgersen and Martin Dahl. |
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