During six weeks survey (August 26 to October 3, 2009) in the Western and the Northern coast of Madagascar, the R/V Dr. Fridtjof Nansen has carried out a pelagic ecosystem study in the framework of the ‘’FAO/South-Western Indian Ocean Fishery Project (SWIOFP)’’ and the ‘’Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystem (ASCLME)’’ projects. The survey's main objective was to establish the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the Western Madagascar shelf region as a whole.