Design Optimisation and Implementation of Demersal Survey Cruises in the Macaronesian Archipelagos

This project was a continuation of a first project approved in 1994 (see Study 94/034) and most of the methodologies applied and work undertaken were similar.

This project implemented the cost-efficient balanced survey, designed in the previous study, for the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. The survey provided a good coverage of the coast of the islands and the banks that constitute these macronesian archipelagos, from the shallows to 1,200 m depth. Three cruises were carried out; two in Madeira (spring 1996 and spring 1997) and one in the Azores (spring 1997).

The cruises were primarily directed towards the blackspot seabream (Pagellus bogaraveo), the target species of the multi-specific and multi-gear fisheries that occur in the Azores and also the most important, both quantitatively and economically. At a lower level, these surveys also targeted, among others, the forkbeard (Phycis phycis), the blackbelly rosefish (Helicolenus dactylopterus and Pontinus kuhlii), the alfonsinos (Beryx splendens and Beryx decadactylus), the European conger eel (Conger conger) and the silver scabbardfish (Lepidopus caudatus).