International bottom trawl surveys in the Mediterranean (MEDITS) The MEDITS survey 2000 and 2001 data analysis Volume ooo Instruction manual Version 4 Final report May 2002 Project 99 / 026 IFREMER - CE Project 99 / 014 IEO - CE Project 99 / 046 SIBM - CE Project 99 / 038 NCMR – CE Rap2000-01_Vol2 Edited by Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer Rue de l’île d’Yeu B.P. 21105 44311 Nantes Cedex France The MEDITS programme is conducted owing to the financial support from the European Commission (DG XIV) and the following partners, the IEO for Spain, the IFREMER for France, the Italian Minister of forest, agricultural and food resources (DG fisheries and aquaculture) for Italy as well as Slovenian, Croatian, Albanian and Maltese areas, the NCMR for Greece. This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission and in no way anticipates any future opinion of the Commission. Permission to copy, or reproduce the contents of this report is granted subject to citation of the source of this material. The study has been carried out with the financial assistance of the European Commission. Instructions Manuel – MEDITS survey - version 4 PREAMBLE The first version of this manual was prepared in 1994 (Bertrand coord, 1994) in the frame of a concertation between several research Institutes from the four Mediterranean member States of the European Union. The target was to conduct a common bottom trawl survey in which all participants use the same gear and the same methodology. The manual was revised in 1995 after the '94 survey to take methodological improvements acquired during the first survey into account. During the years in which the project has been conducted several improvements were made. The third version of this manual was edited in 1999 to take all the modifications adopted by the Steering Committee of the project into account. This fourth version is an English translation of the former one. In addition the files formats and the files names was modified in 2000 to allow to code the year on 4 characters instead of 2 formerly and these changes have been included. Furthermore and following some trial made during the 2000' French survey, some modifications of the gears rigging have been made possible. They have been fully applied for the 2001 Medits survey. Note. A preliminary document of this version, labelled ‘Volume 1’ and dated ‘September 2000’, has been circulated jointly with the interim report of this contract. Instructions Manuel – MEDITS survey - version 4 Co-ordination of the MEDITS program (2000) Co-ordination Committee Arnauld SOUPLET (general co-ordinator, IFREMER) Luis GIL DE SOLA (IEO) Giulio RELINI (SIBM) Costas PAPACONSTANTINOU (NCMR) Steering Committee The members of the Co-ordination Committee Ali SRAIRI : South-western Mediterranean Sea (Morocco) Gianni ARDIZZONE : Ligurian Sea, North and Central Tyrrhenian Sea Dino LEVI : South Tyrrhenian Sea and Sicilian Channel Angelo CAU : Sardinia Giovanni MARANO : West Ionian Sea and part of South Adriatic Sea Corrado PICCINETTI : North, Central and part of South of Adriatic Sea Stanko CERVEK : Northeast Adriatic Sea (Slovenia) Stjepan JUKIC-PELADIC : Central-East Adriatic Sea (Croatia) Kastriot OSMANI : Southeast Adriatic Sea (Albania) Argyris KALLIANIOTIS : North Aegean Sea George TSERPES : South Aegean Sea Chrissi-Yianna POLITOU : Argosaronic Gulf and East Ionian Sea Permanent guests Pierre-Yves DREMIÈRE and Giulio COSIMI (gear technologists) Pino LEMBO (Co-ordinator of the SAMED project) Jacques A. BERTRAND (editor of the present report) ___ Instructions Manuel – MEDITS survey - version 4 Contents INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 1. SPECIFICATIONS OF THE SAMPLING GEAR.................................................................................................. 3 1.1. THE TRAWL ............................................................................................................................................................ 3 1.2. THE RIGGING .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 1.3. THE DOORS............................................................................................................................................................. 3 1.4. WARP DIAMETER AND LENGTH............................................................................................................................... 4 1.5. COMPLEMENTARY EQUIPMENT'S ............................................................................................................................ 4 2. SAMPLING METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................................... 4 2.1. HAULS LOCALISATION ............................................................................................................................................ 4 2.2. OPERATING THE GEAR ............................................................................................................................................ 4 2.2.1. Sampling period in the day............................................................................................................................. 4 2.2.2. Haul speed and duration ................................................................................................................................ 4 2.2.3. Haul start and end definition.......................................................................................................................... 5 2.2.4. Haul orientation ............................................................................................................................................. 5 2.2.5. Managing the end of shooting operations and the start of the haul............................................................... 5 2.2.6. Setting of the trawl on the ground .................................................................................................................. 5 2.2.7. Trawl geometry while fishing ......................................................................................................................... 5 2.2.8. Wear of the trawl............................................................................................................................................ 6 3. TREATMENT OF THE CATCHES ........................................................................................................................ 6 3.1. SAMPLINGS............................................................................................................................................................. 6 3.2. BIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS...................................................................................................................................... 6 3.2.1. Measurement units.......................................................................................................................................... 6 3.2.2. Sex and maturity............................................................................................................................................. 6 3.3 OTHER PARAMETERS............................................................................................................................................... 7 4. INTER-CALIBRATION OF THE WORK AT SEA............................................................................................... 7 5. DATA EXCHANGE................................................................................................................................................... 7 5.1. GENERAL INFORMATION......................................................................................................................................... 7 5.2. FILES TYPE ............................................................................................................................................................. 7 5.3. FILES STRUCTURE AND INFORMATION'S CODING ..................................................................................................... 8 ANNEXES..................................................................................................................................................................... 23 I. LIST OF THE REFERENCE SPECIES.............................................................................................................................. 25 II. STANDARD LENGTH FOR CRUSTACEANS AND CEPHALOPODS.................................................................................. 26 III. CODE OF SEXUAL MATURITY FOR FISH................................................................................................................... 27 IV. CODES OF SEXUAL MATURITY FOR CRUSTACEANS AND CEPHALOPODS................................................................. 28 V. FORMAT OF THE TYPE 1 FILES (DATA ON THE HAUL) .............................................................................................. 29 VI. FORMAT OF THE TYPE 2 FILES (CATCHES BY HAUL) .............................................................................................. 30 VII. FORMAT OF TYPE 3 FILES (BIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS)......................................................................................... 31 VIII. FORMAT OF TYPE 4 FILES (TEMPERATURE DATA)