“A special headquarters headed by the head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries Ilya Vasilyevich Shestakov has been created to manage the work of the Great African Expedition. Operational control over the work of the expedition and operational analysis of the results will be carried out by specialists of the Atlantic branch of VNIRO under the leadership of the deputy director of VNIRO - head of the branch, candidate of biological sciences Konstantin Bandurin,” the press service representative reported.
The start of the expedition is scheduled for August 21 in Kaliningrad. The research vessels (RV) of the Federal Agency for Fisheries "Atlantis" and "Atlantniro" will head to the shores of Africa in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. The research will continue until the beginning of 2026 in the coastal waters of 18 countries. The RV "Atlantniro" will conduct research in the areas of Morocco, Mauritania, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of the Congo, Angola. The RV "Atlantida" will carry out work in the sea waters of Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, the Republic of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, Oman, Eritrea. The work will include comprehensive surveys to assess the biomass, abundance and recruitment of small pelagic fish, as well as work to assess the biomass of demersal or bottom fish, shrimp and other aquatic biological resources, along with studying the distribution and behavior of aquatic biological resources, oceanographic conditions and food supply. The assessments will be made using acoustic sounding, control trawling, hydrological and hydrobiological stations.
The result of the expedition, along with obtaining valuable scientific materials, will be the development and strengthening of cooperation with African countries, which is the most important area of Russian foreign policy, as well as strengthening the position of the Russian Federation in the World Ocean, expanding the geography and scale of domestic fishing, the press service noted.
Source: TASS