Studying fish eggs, fish larvae and microplastics onboard the Nansen
- The Nansen scientists are onboard overseeing the trawls and the scientific research.
- Scientists look for microplastics in the samples collected with the manta trawl.
- Manta trawl
The Nansen has been at sail along the northwestern coast of Africa for just over a week.
If you missed our news about the Casablanca launch of the Nansen and the start of the first research voyage of this marine research vessel, you can see the post here.
Over this first week, the scientists have settled into their busy days that ensure 24-hour coverage. Each scientist works in one of three teams to cover each 24-hour period in eight-hour shifts. This allows scientific work to continue both day and night during the vessel’s time at sea.
In the past days, our Nansen scientists have been hard at work in the plankton lab.
They have been undertaking multinet trawls in order to sample for fish eggs and fish larvae, which provides them an important overview on fisheries resources in their waters.
All of the data is input into a dedicated Nansis database, which is stored at the Norwegian Institute of Marine research (IMR) Headquarters in Bergen, Norway and also shared with the participating country in order to devise fisheries management policies based on updated science and research.
The new manta trawls on board or optimized for collecting marine plastics present in our oceans.
Concerns about the presence of microplastics in our oceans is growing, and scientific research into this phenomena is key. The new science programme of the Nansen includes the study of microplastics as a key element of any research voyage.
On this first leg of our Northwest African journey, our scientists are busy collecting, researching and cataloguing their findings of microplastics gathered during these trawls.
- Gathering the samples from the manta net.
They will continue with this research work as they journey down the coast of western Africa.
We expect their important research to feed into the important discussions taking place on the danger of marine plastics at high-level events such as this June’s UN Ocean Conference and the next Our Ocean Conference scheduled for Malta this October.
In the coming days and weeks, we will presenting more news about the on-board marine research undertaken by our talented team of scientists.
In the meantime, look out for the Nansen as it continues on its journey in northwestern Africa, and be sure to follow our journey here on the #EAFNansen blog!
- This multinet gathers material for the scientists to study in the research laboratories.
- Scientists sample the fish eggs and fish larvae gathered from the multinet.
- Scientists on board gather samples from the multinet.
- Scientists looking for fish eggs and larva.
- Conducting a manta trawl from the Nansen.
