SWIOFP Shallow-water prawn trawl survey in Tanzania

After completing a 15-day survey in Kenya waters, the trawler MV Vega returned to its home port in Mombasa, where the Kenyan scientists disembarked. The vessel then took on fuel and food, and  sailed to Tanga, Tanzania on the 5^th of February. The Vega was expected to arrive in Tanga on the morning after, but a broken diesel pump had slowed their progress, thus causing a delay. Tanzanian scientists anxiously awaited the arrival of the vessel in Tanga, after 6 hours of road travelling and many days of preparation! At 18h00 on the 6^th of February, approximately  12 hours behind schedule, the Vega entered port. Fortunately the owner of the vessel had already been told of the broken pump by his crew, and it was already on its way to Tanga.  

Further problems awaited the Vega, when some of the crew did not have the required certification, and had to be hastily replaced. This added to the standby time and general frustration levels, and finally the vessel was cleared, and departed on the 9^th of February to start with the SWIOFP shallow-water prawn trawl survey in Tanzania. Onboard was a relieved and excited team of eight Tanzanian scientists, eager to start sampling and collecting information on shallow-water prawn resources along the coast of mainland Tanzania.

One week into the survey, the Survey Cruise Leader Miss Catherine Mwakosya and Chief Scientist Dr. Baraka Kuguro from TAFIRI, informed the project that the survey is going according to plan:

 “Jambo! Yes, all is well onboard the MV Vega, everyone is busy and happy. We’ve been working hard and catches have been abundant – we are doing a lot of sampling!”

Mr. Baraka Kuguru, Survey Chief Scientist

 “The weather has been good except for last Sunday when we had a lot of wind and rain. We finished surveying Zone 1 and are now on Zone 2. All is going well and we might even finish earlier than expected! " .

Ms. Catherine Mwakosya, Survey Cruise Leader