Benguela Current Sources and Transport (BEST 1) on the Africana Voyage 105, June 1992

The Benguela Current Sources and Transport (BEST 1) was conducted on the Africana Voyage 105 from 16 June 1992 to 05 July 1992. The objectives of the survey was the quantification of the flux and Agulhas rings penetrating the South-East Atlantic and the influence of these on the shelf waters and resources of the Benguela system; the provision of a large-scale environmental time-series lasting for a continuous period of 18 months. This was used to validate processes inferred from satellite imagery, thereby enhancing utility of the latter for fisheries environmental monitoring as needed for fisheries research; determination of the distribution and abundance of rock lobster larvae in the South-East Atlantic, to supplement the existing data which were collected in April 1989. This formed an integral part of the Institute's rock lobster research (West Coast rock lobster spend at least one year traversing the South Atlantic gyre before settling on the West Coast); water column and sediment geochemistry on a transect between the coast and the 1000m isobath along 30°27'S to provide an indication of the historical record of anoxia in this part of the Benguela system.