Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Survey Management Contract

Research surveys are now conducted annually at South Georgia by MRAG/BAS. In the past MRAG organized one survey every two years, This system will not operate in the 2005/10 contract. Instead, one MRAG scientist will be present on each annual research survey.

The primary objectives of the survey are to:

• Determine toothfish pre-recruitment population structure in the South Georgia  and Shag Rocks regions to contribute to the GY estimates of sustainable yield and assessments of the status of the toothfish stock;
• Determine icefish standing stock around South Georgia and Shag rocks to produce an assessment of icefish stock size for the derivation of a TAC, and for investigations into icefish population structure and management; and
• Determine the standing stock of other major demersal fish species in the area such as Champsocephalus gunnari and Notothenia rossi;

Secondary survey objectives are to:

• Continue the toothfish tagging programme to contribute to our understanding of stock structure, migrations, growth and population size.
• Investigate the biological characteristics of potential relevance to stock dynamics for all fish species in the area.

The following surveys have been undertaken by the contractors:

Date                                    Vessel                  Name

27/01/2011-06/02/2011     FV Sil                     South Georgia Groundfish Survey 2011

15/01/2010-24/01/2010     FV Sil                     South Georgia Groundfish Survey 2010

15/01/2009-23/01/2009     FV Sil                     South Georgia Groundfish Survey 2009

17/04/2008-30/04/2008     FV Sil                     South Georgia Groundfish Survey 2008

27/08/2007-21/09/2007     FPRV Dorada       South Georgia Groundfish Survey 2007

03/01/2006-01/02/2006     FPRV Dorada       South Georgia Groundfish Survey 2006

04/01/2005-04/02/2005     FPRV Dorada       South Georgia Survey 2005

06/01/2004-10/02/2004     FPRV Dorada       South Georgia Groundfish Survey 2004

07/01/2003-06/02/2003     FPRV Dorada       South Georgia Toothfish Survey 2003