Highlights from the Latest Seasonal Survey Trip on Georges Bank

Our team recently returned from the final research cruise of the 2025 RSA Seasonal Survey, six days aboard the F/V Concordia sampling the eastern part of Georges Bank. Running since 2012, the Seasonal Survey monitors Atlantic sea scallops and the species that share their habitat. This trip, the crew successfully sampled 49 stations in June and recorded 25 species across all sampling gears.

One standout came from the cover net: the smallest American lobster the survey has recorded since the cover net sampling protocol began in 2019, measuring just 10 mm across the carapace. Catches like this demonstrate the cover net's ability to retain small individuals that the standard dredge would not capture — valuable for documenting juvenile benthic organisms.

A single tow also produced 31 ocean pout, one of the highest catches of this species observed during the seasonal survey, which may indicate localized aggregation or habitat use within the sampled area.

The trip also marked a successful test deployment of CFF's Remote Transmitter Sonde, an instrument that measures conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, acoustics, pressure, and temperature. The deployment confirmed operational procedures and will support routine environmental data collection at approximately half of the survey stations on future cruises.

All planned scientific operations were completed successfully, providing a complete dataset for analysis. Results from all cruises in the 2025 Seasonal Survey are currently being compiled and will be presented in the final project report, expected in October 2026.

Read the full cruise report here

Watch highlights from the trip