B/C abate MOLINA: sailed to evaluate common sardine and anchovy between V and X regions.

The ship set sail at 24:00 a.m. on Monday, 29 April to start the cruise the autumn project funded by the Fund of fisheries research: “hydroacoustic Assessment of the recruitment of anchovy and sardine common betweenthe Vy X Regions, 2013” (FIP 2012-12).

<b>Background</b>

The recruitment of the anchovy (Engraulis ringens) and sardines (Strangomera bentincki), occurs in the central-southern area of Chile massively in the summer season, extending from October-November until March, also recorded minor recruitment pulses during the autumn and winter (Castle et al, 2002), probably caused by the secondary spawning

The more temporary extension of the spawning, detected in recent years, mainly of anchovy and sardine secondarily in common, along with a slight gap between these species in this process, determines that the recruitment exceeds the summer months. This event has been considered in the draft FIP 2012-12 “hydroacoustic Assessment of the recruitment of anchovy and sardine common betweenthe Vy X Regiones,2013” considered the implementation of a second cruise, during autumn, aimed at monitoring the evolution of the recruitment of summer and to evaluate the income from a second pulse.

During the summer of 2013 has already been made the first cruise focused on the period in which it occurs the maximum of the recruitment. Both cruises are carried out in the B/C “Abate Molina” apply a sampling design acoustic that tends to minimize the bias of shore. Without prejudice to the foregoing, in the Cruise has been considered the realization of a acoustic surveying between Punta Manuel (38 º 30 ‘S) inthe IXRegiony Punta Galera (40 º 00 ‘S) (XIV Region) with ships with shallow drafts that correct the possible bias of shore in the evaluation caused by a distribution of the coastal resources.

The <b>general objective</b> is to evaluate and characterize the stock of the anchovy and sardine common present betweenthe Vy X regions, through the hydroacoustic method, during the period of maximum recruitment and in the fall immediately.

The <b>specific objectives</b> are:

• Estimating the abundance) and the total biomass as well as the fraction of adult recruits and anchovy and sardine common in the area and study periods.
• Estimar la composición de talla, peso, edad y proporción sexual del stock recluta de anchoveta y sardina común en el área de estudio.
• Determine the areas of aggregation of both species and analyze their distribution and abundance and latitudinal bathymetric, characterizing and linking, in addition, the oceanographic and meteorological conditions prevailing in the main foci of abundance during the cruises of evaluation.
• Characterize and analyze the aggregations of anchovy and sardine common in the area of study.

The cruise will be extended by <b>22 days</b>, including the navigation to the study area, stopping at Valparaiso approximately the next May 22.