The West Coast Demersal Biomass Survey was conducted on the Africana Voyage 139 from 8 January to 30 January 1997. The objectives of the cruise were to survey, by means of trawling, the abundance of adult and recruiting hake in South African waters; to conduct routine biological and length frequency sampling of demersal species; to investigate the environmental and ecological inter-relationships of hake and other demersal species; to investigate the occurrence, distribution, reproduction and abundance of squid species; to investigate the distribution and biology of demersal species in water at depths greater than 500 m by means of demersal trawling; to sample catches of hake for sex ratios and frequency of gill parasites; to conduct demersal environmental studies including intercalibration of bottom temperature measurements with commercial trawlers, and CTD and ADCP measurements at all trawl stations and other specified stations; the collection of specimens for the South African...