New research ship sails into home port of Lowestoft
The new state-of-the-art research ship for the Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) sailed into her home port of Lowestoft for the first time Monday 31 March 2003.
The £24 million, 73 metre Cefas Endeavour will based at Lowestoft when she begins work in April gathering and analysing data on the whole marine environment.
The Cefas Endeavour, with 19 scientists and 16 crew, will be at the heart of fisheries research and the monitoring of the seas. She will replace the 32 year old research vessel Cirolana.
The ship is designed to minimise underwater noise and draws heavily on stealth technology used by submarines and surface ships. This improves the efficiency of sonar and echo equipment. That in turn reduces the risk of detection by fish being monitored or sampled which maximises the accuracy of the data collected.
Fisheries minister Elliot Morley said: "This is a very important advance for fisheries research which began in Lowestoft in 1902.
"It shows not only a long-term government commitment to the ecology of our oceans and but also the government's determination ensure that sustainability is at the centre of fisheries and marine environmental policy now and for future generations."
Cefas chief executive Peter Greig Smith said: "This vessel will give us important new scientific capabilities to study the marine environment whilst at sea. It will enable us to provide the sound scientific evidence on which government policies are based."
Cefas Endeavour will carry out a wide range of scientific activities. These will include fishing with a variety of fishing gears, plankton sampling, the deployment and recovery of seabed monitors, physical and chemical oceanographic observations and sediment sampling.
One of the first jobs for the Cefas Endeavour this Spring will be a scientific study of the how fish species eat each other. This will improve advice on (for example) how large fishing mesh sizes should be and how may small fish are needed to ensure sustainability of big predators such as cod and haddock.
Other work for the Cefas Endeavour in 2003 will focus on subjects as diverse as seabed mapping, environmental monitoring and monitoring fish stocks.
Built by Ferguson Shipbuilders, Glasgow, Cefas Endeavour was launched there last August. She has since completed outfitting and successful sea trials and will be officially named at a ceremony in Lowestoft in June this year.
Cefas Endeavour, with seven labs onboard, will work in waters all around the coast of the UK including the North Sea and the Western Approaches.
Notes to Editors
1. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science is an agency of the UK Government's Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs.
2. Cefas employs over 550 staff at four sites around the UK. It carries out scientific monitoring and associated research and development on the management of fish stocks, the marine environment, and in fish and shellfish hygiene cultivation.
3. Cefas Endeavour will carry a comprehensive set of fishing and hydrographic winches and purpose designed A-frames capable of deploying a wide range of sampling and measuring instruments.
4. The vessel has the latest fisheries and hydrographic echo-sounders and sonars. Dynamic-Positioning will be used to control the vessel's position with precision during research operations. Computer networks will gather and distribute the data collected.
5. Cefas provides services in fisheries science and management, environmental monitoring and assessment, fish farming, fish health, disease and hygiene mainly to Defra and other UK government departments.
Contact Defra Press Office Karen Triggs: 0207-238-6027
