The vessels itinerary was as follows:
Departure Port of Spain: 15 February.Figure 1 and 2 show the course tracks and the fishing - and hydrographical stations worked. A hydrographical profile was worked northwards over the shelf off the Paria Peninsula, but otherwise little work was done in the eastern area where also the bottom conditions seems difficult for demersal trawling. The survey effort was intensive from the Testigos Archipelago westwards past the Tortuga Island both along the inner and outer shelf parts. A hydrographical profile was worked from the shore over the Cariaco Trench into deep water to the west of Margarita Island. A detailed net of course tracks were run in the areas of high sardine abundance to the east of and inside the Margarita Island and in the Gulf of Cariaco. Off Guaira, on the wide deeper part of the shelf, a set of bottom trawl stations were set out to study the fauna in this area. A hydrographic section was worked out from Peninsula de Paraguana in a northeastward direction. From the outer station a new section was formed towards the shallow waters of the Gulf of Venezuela. A few days later the hydrographic work was completed with a section off Peninsula de Guarija into the deep. The Gulf of Venezuela was covered with an acoustic net with approximately 10 miles between the transects, and bottom trawl hauls were distributed over the whole Gulf.
Call on La Guaira: 24 February.
Call on Punto Fijo: 29 February and 3 March.
Arrival Santa Marta: 7 March.
Prelocated trawl stations were positioned over the shelf during daytime to cover different depth ranges. Bottom trawl stations were also partly set out during nighthours. These were more intended for a first qualitative study of the bottom fauna, and do not form part of the quantitative trawl-survey. The slope along the outer shelf was surveyed for trawlable bottom and some trawl stations worked in the depth range 200 - 350 m. The acoustic system was calibrated on 20 February in the Gulf of Cariaco using the copper sphere procedure
