The fish and fisheries of Jones Bank and the wider Celtic Sea

• Published in: Progress in Oceanography
• Main Authors: Martinez, I, Ellis, JR, Scott, B, Tidd, A
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd 2013
• Subjects: Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences; Fisheries Sciences; Fisheries Management; Cornwall; Fishing Ground; Hake; Turbot
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2013.03.004; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/116221

The Celtic Sea is a diverse fishing ground that supports important commercial fisheries for a range ofdemersal fish, large and small-bodied pelagic fish and a variety of cephalopods and other shellfish. Aregional overview of the main commercial fish stocks of the Celtic Sea and of the fish that occur in thevicinity of Jones Bank are provided through analyses of landings data from English and Welsh vessels,and from scientific trawl surveys. Dedicated smaller scale sampling via trawl surveys combined with baitedcameras on and around the Jones Bank were also analysed to investigate the importance of sandbankhabitats with attention paid to the differences in the species occurring on the top of the bank in comparisonto adjacent off-bank habitats. Official landing statistics for UK (English and Welsh) vessels indicatedthat the predominant commercial demersal species in ICES Divisions VIIg,h (in terms of quantitieslanded) were anglerfish, megrim, pollack and skates (Rajidae). There were, however, regional differencesin the distribution of fish and fisheries, and the area surrounding Jones Bank (ICES Rectangles 28E1 and28E2) supports fisheries for megrim, anglerfish, skates, hake, ling and turbot, with otter trawl, gillnet andbeam trawl the main gears used. Recent survey data collected with GOV (Grande Ouverture Verticale)trawl from the Celtic Sea (ICES Divisions VIIe-h, 20072010) were used to highlight the broad scale distributionof the main fish assemblages in the Celtic Sea. Analyses of the fish and cephalopod catches fromthese surveys indicated that there were four broad assemblages in the area, including (i) a region aroundthe Cornwall (which will also be partly influenced by the necessity to use rockhopper ground gear onthese rough grounds), (ii) the shallower regions of the north-western Celtic Sea (including parts of theBristol Channel), (iii) the deeper parts of the outer shelf and (iv) the central Celtic Sea. These data alsoprovided information on the ichthyofauna of the Jones Bank. Further site-specific data for bank andoff-bank habitats were collected during dedicated surveys on the Jones Bank in 2008 using commercialtrawlers and baited camera deployments. Twenty-three species were recorded on the top of the bank,where horse mackerel, haddock and boarfish were the most abundant species; 18 species were foundalong the slope of the bank (with blue whiting, poor cod, hake and horse mackerel predominant) and18 species observed off the bank (where catches were dominated by blue whiting, poor cod and hake).The differences between camera and trawls were important with cameras only picking up 28% of the speciesseen in the trawls. However both camera and trawl results suggest that some species are very habitatspecific, with species such as haddock only observed on the top of the bank, whilst Nephrops norvegicus was abundant on the flat areas off the bank but was infrequent on the top of the bank. These results suggestthat future surveys of offshore sandbank habitats should stratify sampling more specifically to dealwith smaller scale features that may play an important role in providing a greater range of habitats thanjust their relative size would suggest.