The fishery research vessel "Dr. Fridtjof Nansen" belongs to the Norwegian Agency for International Development (NORAD), and was designed and built for scientific and exploratory investigations of fishery resources of developing countries. The Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, is responsible for the scientific programme and the operation of the vessel.
Following an agreement between the Ministry of Fisheries, Mogadishu and UNDP/FAO and NORAD the vessel was scheduled to work in Somalian waters in two periods during 1984. The vessel has already conducted one survey, in March 1984 from which a separate report has been issued. The present report covers the second survey, carried out in the period 25-31 August 1984. The work is funded by NORAD and UNDP/FAO.
The vessel had earlier carried out five acoustic surveys in Somalian waters under an FAO programme for the North Arabian Sea in 1975-76. The present series of surveys is thus a follow-up of the previous work.
The main objectives were:
Acoustic survey of the small pelagic fish resources on the shelf off North-East Somalia.
Trawl survey of the demersal fish resources in the 20-200m bottom depth zone in the same region.
Charting of the main hydrographic conditions
The scientific staff was:
From the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen:
Tore Strømme (cruise leader)From UNESCO Marine Research Center, Aden:
Bjørnar Ellertsen
Karsten Hansen
Bjørn Bakken (instrument chief)
Erling Molvær
Rex Edwards
Jan Piechura
