The scientific ship Abate Molina was granted by the Japanese Government to the Government of Chile. (Photo: IFOP)

Chilean scientific vessel participates in South Pacific joint survey

CHILE
Friday, September 21, 2018, 02:20 (GMT + 9)

At midnight on Saturday, September 15, the scientific ship Abate Molina sailed from Valparaiso, heading to northern Chile, to develop the project "Bio-oceanographic conditions and anchovy stock spawning between Arica regions and Antofagasta, year 2018."

The main work of the scientific vessel of the Fisheries Development Institute (IFOP) will be to monitor the bio-oceanographic conditions of the northern zone and the sampling of anchovy eggs. The performance of the project is in the hands of the Department of Oceanography and Environment of IFOP.

The project leader, oceanographer Hernán Reyes, pointed out that the group participating in this national survey is really diverse, since they will perform physical (temperature, salinity), chemical (dissolved oxygen and nutrients) and biological (phyto and zooplankton) oceanography, samplings of stable isotopes, sighting of marine mammals, anchovy and plankton acoustics and also sampling of anchovy eggs.

Fishing area for the anchovy (Engraulis ringens) in northern Chile. Dots indicate the location where fish where collected in previous research trip. Photo: CSIRO

This scientific study, in its oceanographic part, is part of the XXI Joint Regional Survey coordinated by the Permanent Commission of the South Pacific (CPPS), in which scientific vessels from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile participate simultaneously. The survey covers the region between 6°30' N to 26° S, with the four countries covering the coast.

The objective of this regional study is to document the variability of ocean properties and the adjacent atmosphere in the Southeast Pacific in September-October 2018, with the purpose of anticipating -- in a timely manner -- the presence of ENSO conditions as of November/December 2018 to March/April 2019.

At this moment, according to the specialized institutions, the region is in a state of "El Niño" surveillance, with a probability of 50-55 per cent of the occurrence of a warm period in the September-November quarter, but increasing to 65-70 per cent for the southern summer.

Therefore, the development of a survey that covers the indicated entire area is timely and necessary to know the behavior of the ocean in this stage prior to a possible anomalous warming of the coastal waters of the region.

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