Pelagic decapods were collected in the northern Benguela upwelling system off the coast of Namibia on three cruises: FRS Africana (December 2009), RRS Discovery (September/October 2010) and RV Maria S. Merian (February 2011). Three transects along 17°S, 19°S and 23°S were sampled during each cruise. Decapods were collected with a 1 m2 single (December 2009) and double (September/October 2010, February 2011) MOCNESS (Multiple Opening and Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System; Wiebe et al., 1985). The single MOCNESS was equipped with 9 and the double MOCNESS with 18 nets of 333 µm mesh size. The towing speed of the vessel was 2 knots and the heaving speed of the winch was 0.5 m s-1. Maximum sampling depth was close to the seafloor at the shallow stations (shelf and shelf break) or down to 750 m (2009), 2600 m (2010) and 3000 m (2011) at the deeper slope and oceanic stations. Discrete depths intervals (0-25, 25-50, 50-100, 100-200, 200-400, 400-600, 600-800, 800-1000 m) were sampled at most stations. At stations deeper than 1000 m, 250 m intervals were performed to a maximum depth of 3000 m. The volume filtered ranged from 181 to 368 m3 for narrow depth intervals of 50 m and from 645 to 975 m3 for 200 m intervals. The samples were preserved in 4% buffered formaldehyde-seawater solution. In the laboratory of the Institute for Hydrobiology and Fisheries Science (IHF) at the University of Hamburg, preserved samples were sieved in size fractions of 5 mm and for taxonomic analysis stored in Steedman-solution (Steedman, 1976). The size class of >5 mm was used for the recording of decapods. Decapod species were identified according to Crosnier & Forest (1968; 1969), Kensley (1971a; 1971b) and Pérez Farfante & Kensley (1997) and enumerated and measured separately (total length from the anterior margin of the eye to the end of telson). Abundance is expressed as both, numbers of individuals per m2 and per m3.