2. Narrative.

The vessels itinerary was as follows:

Departure:	Acajutla 4 March.
Arrival:	Salina Cruz 13 March.

During 4 days of work in Guatemalan waters the vessel steamed abt. 550 nm and 26 trawl stations were made. A hydrographic profile was worked off Champerico. During 5 days of work in Mexican waters the distance steamed was abt. 840 nm and 35 fishing stations were worked. A hydrographic profile was worked approximately out of the San Marcos bar.

The course tracks and the fishing stations for the whole area is shown in Figure 1. For the Guatemalan shelf the distribution of course tracks and fishing stations reflect the main survey objectives: to cover and sample the small pelagic fish and their predator species found in the inshore area, and to do a trawl survey for langostino and deep water shrimp near the edge of the shelf and on the slope beyond. A few hauls were, however made at intermediate depths thus testing the upper limit of langostino distribution. During the survey it became apparent that the inshore community was the most important and the main survey effort was spent inshore.

The shelf in the Tehuantepec Gulf broadens out and has an extensive seaward platform with a depth of 200 - 300 m. It appeared in the course of the survey that the bottom fauna at this depth was sparse and poor consisting mainly of Squilla. The presence of logs and sulfur-smelling mud indicated very low levels of oxygen content. The main survey effort was accordingly concentrated over the more nearshore parts of the Gulf.

The weather conditions were excellent during the survey except for the last day when a "Tehuano", northerly force 7 made acoustic work difficult.