Environment and Productivity patterns in the indians EEZ. Regular and systamtic surveys to
Research vessel(s)
FORV Sagar Sampada
Commissioned in 1984, the state-of-the-art Research Vessel FORV Sagar Sampada has been the back bone of our R&D efforts on Marine Living Resources including deep-sea fishery survey’s.
Fishery Oceanographic Research Vessel (FORV) Sagar Sampada.
FORV Sagar Sampada, 72 meter long multipurpose fishery oceanographic vessel constructed at Dennebrog Shipyard Ltd, Denmark was commissioned on 6th November, 1984. The Vessel has so far completed 343 scientific cruises in the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal including one cruise to the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean. The Vessel is ice strengthened to support India’s scientific programme in the Southern Ocean.
The Vessel has accommodation facilities for a team of 59, which include 34 crew members of the Shipping Corporation of India and 25 scientific/technicians. The Vessel is equipped with Fleet 77 for communication purpose, satellite navigator for navigation, Helipad for emergency landing of a helicopter and a medical room with qualified doctor. FORV Sagar Sampada has an average speed of 10 knots and an endurance of 35 days.
Scientific facilities on-board include;
A Frame & Winches – Two A frame on the port and star board sides facilitate operations of CTD, Box Corer, MPN and Bongo Nets. Split Winches with 6000meter of wire enables deep sea fishing operations upto a maximum depth of 1000meters. Other winches on-board are Plankton Winch, Sweep Winches, Hydrographic Winch, and CTD Winch etc for the operations of various scientific equipments.
Hydrographic Laboratory – Is equipped with a Sea Bird CTD system for vertical profiling of temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen. The system also helps to collect water samples from desired depths. A six Channel autoanalyser is available to analyze water samples for nutrients such as phosphate, nitrate, nitrite, silicate and ammonia etc. Other facilities include an Autosal for salinity measurement, Spectrophotometer for Chlorophyll estimation and facilities for titration and chemical analysis of samples. The laboratory is also provided with a Multiple Plankton Net (MPN) for collection of zooplankton from desired depths and Bongo nets for horizontal collection of zooplankton.
Acoustic Room: Sagar Sampada has state of art acoustic facilities for fish biomass estimations. These include SIMRAD EK 60 which operates at 38Khz, 120Khz and 200Khz frequencies. Acoustic profiling of the sea bottom is done using EA 200 operating at 12 KHz frequency. B1 500 port processing software can be effectively used in the real time processing of acoustic data and estimation of fish biomass.
Fishery Research Facilities: The autotrawl system on-board facilitated smooth fishing operations in deep waters. The integrated instrumentation ensures synchronization of various gears parameters for good gear performance. Expo model trawl nets and HSDT crustacean version nets from the standard gear are available for Demersal trawl for bottom surveys. Further, latest version Cosmos trawl for bottom surveys is also available at FORV shore station. The Vessel has gear such as Issac-kid Mid trawl and self closing RMTs for survey and assessment of DSL organisms. Deep freezer on-board has a capacity to store 1o tons of fish at – 20 deg C.
Plankton Research Facilities: The Vessel has most modern facilities for R & D on primary production and planktons. Modern plankton gear such as Multiple plankton net, Bongo nets and facility for collection of micro zooplankton are available on-board. These facilities are complimented with a C14 laboratory for accurate primary productivity measurements.
Microbiology Lab: Facilities for microbial culture and analysis are available in the laboratory.
Other Scientific Facilities: Include a hull mounted Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) for current measurements, Automatic Weather Station for routine collection of Met ocean data, LAN facilities, dark room facilities and a marine aquarium to conduct experiments on live animals.
