CV17010 Undergraduate shipboard training in methods of oceanographic, benthic, megafauna and fisheries research

Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) training survey in Cork Harbour, Galway Bay and Clew Bay. Measurable educational objectives of the course are as follows: - cruise trainers and students will have students will have undertaken the following onboard activities in a peer assisted learning model. - trainers and students will have engaged in and completed a cruise planning and development process in conjunction with RvOPs and P&O Maritime - students will have experienced the routine of life aboard a coastal research vessel deploying a wide variety of research equipment and sampling gear - they will be informed about vessel procedures and equitette. Position fixing, station occupancy recording, weather conditions, sea state, prepared a narrative of station activities and manually recorded data collected using a variety of instruments. Students will have taken surface water samples deployed hand held CTD probes, deployed secchi discs and calculated secchi. Students will have assisted in the deployment of the CTD Rosette, taken subsurface water samples and filtered these samples for nutrient and chlorophyll analysis. Students will have observed the deployment of a range of bottom sampling gear from dredges to grabs and corers. Students will have used these devices to determine they type of seabed present and determined what the dominant infaunal species. Students will have have sorted catch from a bottom trawl by species for both vertebrates and invertebrates. They will have determined the composition of the catch (by % mass) for the dominant components and numerically for less dominant components. Selected fish species will be measured, weighed, have their otoliths removed and their reproductive status assessed, which will then be used in a fish aging practical class in GMIT. Students will have undertaken line transect survey techniques for birds and marine mammals and will have learnt some species identification and counting techniques as well as data recording. Trainers will have developed their own knowledge and skills in relation to the operation and utilisation of a coast research vessel.