Provision of International Ecosystem Survey in the Nordic Seas

About

Defra Network eTendering Portal awarded a contract to castlehill LLP for the provision of an international ecosystem survey in the Nordic seas.

The contract, valued at £435,000, involves a pelagic trawler equipped for an acoustic-trawl survey as part of the International Ecosystem Survey in the Nordic Sea (IESNS), a collaboration between Icelandic, Faroe, Norwegian, EU, and UK research institutes since 1997.

The survey investigates the distribution and migrations of Norwegian Spring-spawning herring, blue whiting, and other pelagic fish, producing a biomass index for herring and a recruitment index for blue whiting.

It covers the southern end of the spring-spawning herring population's range and includes hydrographic and plankton distribution assessments to study environmental influences and prey availability.