West Coast Hake Biomass on the Africana Voyage 118, January 1994

The West Coast Hake Biomass cruise was conducted on the Africana 118 from 4 to 26 January 1994. The objectives of the cruise were to survey by means of bottom trawling the abundance of adult and recruiting hake, and other demersal species on the West Coast of South Africa; to investigate the environmental and ecological interrelationships of hake and other demersal species; to study the biology of chondrichthyan species; to investigate the maturity and feeding biology of horse mackerel; to obtain information on the hydrology and currents on the West Coast; to locate and attempt recovery of the offshore current meter/sediment trap array deployed 686m off Hondeklip Bay; to sample catches for hake sex ratios and frequency of gill parasites; to investigate the occurrence, distribution, reproduction and abundance of squid; to investigate the distribution and biology of demersal species in water at depths of greater than 500m by means of demersal trawl and to study the parasites of small carcharhiniform sharks.