Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystems Project

A key aim of the five-year ASCLME Project is to develop a series of well coordinated oceanographic research cruises aimed at gathering essential information about the oceanography of the western Indian Ocean region and its interaction with and influence on the biodiversity and economies of the region.

The 2008  voyage of the Dr Fridtjof Nansen

Between August and December 2008, the Dr Fridtjof Nansen provided a platform for 83 scientists from 27 research institutions to conduct intensive oceanographic surveys in the western Indian Ocean. Among the scientists working on the Dr Fridtjof Nansen during this period were 57 scientists and technicians from Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa and Seychelles.

Surveys began off Madagascar where, for the first time in history, the full extent of the East Madagascar Current was surveyed. This was the first near-synoptic oceanographic survey of this poorly studied area and the survey results are expected to enrich our understanding of the physico-chemical structure of water masses and the pattern of current flow.

Off Mauritius, the deep-sea environment of the tropical island and its possessions was investigated. Then, two teams of oceanographers and biologists conducted a comprehensive survey of the Mascarene Plateau, a submerged volcanic plateau extending over 2,200 km between the Seychelles Bank at 4°S to Mauritius at 20°S. Surprisingly little is known about the effect that the Mascarene Plateau, its channels and surrounding waters have on the biodiversity of the western Indian ocean and the surveys conducted from the Dr Fridtjof Nansen in 2008 were designed to improve our understanding of this unique undersea feature.

Finally, scientists on board the Dr Fridtjof Nansen tracked the movement of dipole eddies – massive swirls of water that move through the Mozambique Channel. Dipole eddies dominate the oceanography of the Mozambique Channel, a region that is known to support large fisheries, high biodiversity and high densities of ecologically important top predators. Therefore, an understanding of dipole eddies and their impacts is considered vital to the management of the Agulhas Current LME.

This leg of the 2008 voyage also continued the work begun by the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP) on the upwelling cell in the Delagoa Bight region. The upwelling cell is believed to dominate productivity in the southernmost part of Mozambique and along most of the east coast of South Africa.

According to Johann Lutjeharms, professor of oceanography at the University of Cape Town, the 2008 voyage of the Dr Fridtjof Nansen resulted in “a huge jump” in multidisciplinary understanding of the marine ecosystems of the western Indian Ocean.
“This is fundamental, pioneering research that you can’t do anywhere else in the world,” said Professor Lutjeharms.
“It is vital for the countries of the region because you can’t manage an ecosystem unless you have a basic idea of what the currents are doing and the effects they have on biota.”

Operating a modern research ship like the Dr Fridtjof Nansen is extremely expensive and logistically very demanding. The 2008 voyage of the Dr Fridtjof Nansen was made possible by a partnership between the ASCLME Project and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) through its Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF-Nansen) Project.

Following the data acquisition phase of the voyage, the scientists, students and technicians who participated in the cruise will carefully analyse the data and create reports which synthesise the data into useful information. The reports will contribute to our understanding of the region and eventually feed into the MEDA, SAP and TDA processes. In this way, scientific findings will lay the groundwork for the countries to develop a strategy for collectively managing the resources on which their people and economies depend.

For more information on the 2008 voyage of the Dr Fridtjof Nansen, take a look at the Cruise Blog archives.

Figure 1. The 2008 voyage of the Dr Fridtjof Nansen

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