The CCAMLR krill synoptic survey

Survey track for 4 ships

The survey will be carried out by four ships (UK,USA, Japan and Russia).

The first three ships will steam an interleaved survey design which stretches across the Scotia Sea from South Georgia to the South Shetland Islands (covering Subareas 48.1, 48.2 and 48.3). The fourth ship (Russia) will steam a set of transects in Subarea 48.4. The survey tracks that will be steamed by UK, USA and Japan are shown below. All three ships will start at South Georgia and finish at the Antarctic Peninsula. The track for the Russian ship can be viewed here.
The survey design is a stratified, random design. The tracks for all ships have been plotted in QuattroPro spreadsheets to allow the calculation of distance and steaming times for different plans. Steaming times for these tracks are available in the latest itinerary (updated on 15 October 1999). Calculations have been carried out assuming that:

the UK ship steams transects 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 & 19;
the USA ship steams transects 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17 & the small-scale surveys around South Georgia and South Orkney Islands;
the Japanese ship steams transects 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 & the small-scale survey around the South Shetland Islands
the Russian ship will steam transects A, B & C in Subarea 48.4 plus the small-scale survey around the South Sandwich Islands

It has also been assumed that each ship spends up to 18 hours per day steaming transects. Each ship will carry out a daytime station around local midday (this will last for 2 hours). The period between dusk and dawn will be used for CTD and net sampling. The actual length of time between dusk and dawn depends on the location and date. In this plot the transects have been randomized. The actual theory and methods used to generate this plot can be viewed here.

The actual waypoints (calculated at 25 km intervals along each transect) are now available for Ship 1, Ship 2 & Ship 3
The survey tracks can also be viewed in relation to some other data sets:

where the commercial fishery takes place
the FAO statistical areas
the positions of the major oceanic frontal regions
provisional stations
the 25 km grid for the Scotia Sea
the 25 km grid for the Antarctic Peninsula


Introduction	Itinerary	Station positions	Cruise tracks	Planning Meeting	Sampling Protocols	Participants	Background papers	Contents

This page was last edited on 15 October 1999