Blue whiting - a key species in the mid-water ecosystems of the north-eastern Atlantic ...

• Main Authors: Heino, Mikko, Godø, Olav Rune
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: ASC 2002 - L - Theme session 2024
• Subjects: Fisheries and aquaculture; Technologies and data; Iceland; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25443025.v1; https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Blue_whiting_-_a_key_species_in_the_mid-water_ecosystems_of_the_north-eastern_Atlantic/25443025/1

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.Blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) is a mesopelagic gadoid that is widely distributed in northeastern Atlantic from the Canary Island to Spitsbergen. It is abundant and commercially exploited in the Norwegian Seas, off Iceland, Faeroe Islands, Hebrides and Ireland, and in the Bay of Biscay. Blue whiting is a highly migratory species. During the spawning season (March-April), blue whiting concentrates to dense aggregations on the well-known spawning locations along the shelf edge west of Ireland and Hebrides and in the Rockall area. Other spawning areas also exist, but stock structure, distribution and migration of this abundant species are insufficiently known. The oceanic distribution of blue whiting westward, towards the mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR), has not been thoroughly investigated. Scattered observations show that the species occurs along the MAR from the Azores in the south to the Reykjanes Ridge in the north. The possibility that ...