| Summary: | Benthic ecosystems, mainly those located in shelf and continental margins of African coasts are found among more unknown and slightly studied habitats from our Planet (Decker et al., 2003). The ECOAFRIK project is based on the benthic invertebrate collections and the information gathered in 2147 stations sampled by trawling during the 24 surveys carried out from 2004 to 2012 in shelf and continental margins of Atlantic and Indian African coasts on board R/V Vizconde de Eza and Dr. Fridtjof Nansen. In all these surveys, same methodology have been used and quantitative data sampling of commercial crustacean and cephalopods species, as well as non commercial megabenthic invertebrates, have been planned carefully; in addition, in some surveys specific gear for benthos study have been used, environmental parameters (geomorphologic prospecting with multibeam, sediment samples and oceanographic data) have been taken, and important faunistic collection are preserved. In this presentation are resumed the research and training activities developed in the framework of the CCLME project during the last five years. MAVA (Contract 12/87 AO C4/2012); EAF-NANSEN Mentoring Program (FAO); CCLME-FAO Project
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