From September 16 to October 18, 2024, members of ATLASea joined Ifremer’s Channel Ground Fish Survey (CGFS) mission to collect new marine specimens in the English Channel.
On Monday September 16, in the port of Brest, an ATLASea team boarded the Ifremer ship “Thalassa” to take part in the Channel Ground Fish Survey campaign. Since 1988, this annual campaign has been assessing the state of marine resources throughout the English Channel, and helping to set fishing quotas in this strategic area. This year, the ATLASea team joined the mission for a very specific reason: to collect fish.
During these five weeks, the boat sailed with several experts on board. Among them, Elio Raphalen, coordinator of this mission for ATLASea, took part in the expedition alongside Ifremer technician Louisa Metral and Ifremer DIVE-Sea project coordinator Bruno Ernande. Midway through the expedition, two other recruits joined Elio in Cherbourg, replacing the previous ones: Janaina Rigonato, CEA engineer and SEQ-Sea project manager, and Angélique Jadaud, Ifremer engineer.
The ship was equipped with a scientific research trawl, designed to capture a wide range of marine species thanks to its fine-meshed funnel-shaped net. This trawl enables representative samples to be collected, ranging from the smallest fish to the largest species. After each tow in a predefined area, the harvested specimens were unloaded into the trawler’s trunk before being sorted, weighed and measured on a sorting belt. In this way, the best specimens were selected. In all, 49 species of fish and 4 species of benthos (organisms living on the seabed) were sampled.
Working environment, © Elio Raphalen
During their trip, the sailors were able to admire aurora borealis near to the Côte Fleurie in Normandy. A rare phenomenon, especially in this region.
Notes
Elio Raphalen: Ifremer halieute technician on the ALTASea project.
Louisa Metral: Ifremer researcher at the MARBEC laboratory.
Angélique Jadaud: Ifremer research engineer at the MARBEC laboratory.
Janaina Rigonato: CEA engineer at Génoscope.
Bruno Ernande: Ifremer researcher at the MARBEC laboratory.
MARine Biodiversity, Exploitation & Conservation (MARBEC) is a joint research unit that brings together staff from 4 main institutions: IRD, CNRS, Ifremer and the University of Montpellier.