Press release published by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) in Vigo
- This work will help improve fisheries management in the north of the Iberian Peninsula.
- The main recruitment area is located in the Ártabro Gulf, off A Coruña, and is persistent over time, while other areas vary each year.
Vigo, Tuesday 3 February 2021. Protecting fish nursery areas has proven to be a very useful tool for managing fisheries efficiently, since protecting these areas can help improve recruitment of target species.
To identify and map potential nursery areas, solid knowledge is needed of the relationships between species and the environment, both spatially and temporally.
In this context, this new study, published by scientists from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), IIM-CSIC and the University of Valencia in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, presents a model that makes it possible to define nursery areas for European hake (Merluccius merluccius) in the north of the Iberian Peninsula.
To do this, the scientists collected, over more than 10 years, catch data for hake recruits (individuals measuring less than 21 centimetres) and investigated the relationships between their presence and environmental variables such as depth, water temperature and salinity, in order to understand and predict their spatial and temporal distribution.
The work shows that there is a main nursery area located along the continental shelf of the Ártabro Gulf, off A Coruña, which remains stable over time. Other areas with high densities of hake recruits have also been located, but they vary each year according to environmental conditions. “In total, we have identified three persistent areas and three intermittent areas over the years, which partially coincide with fishing closure areas for trawling,” says Francisco Izquierdo, PhD candidate at the IEO Oceanographic Centre in Vigo and first author of the article. “These results demonstrate the importance of the proposed dynamic spatio-temporal modelling, since the effect of environmental conditions over time can vary the distribution, shape and abundance of hake nurseries,” the scientist adds.
The work, Izquierdo concludes, “can help improve fisheries management from several points of view: firstly, by improving knowledge of the spatial and temporal distribution of hake recruits in the north of the Iberian Peninsula; secondly, by helping to define potential fishing closure areas; and thirdly, by improving abundance indices in assessment models for species such as hake”.
The research was carried out within the framework of the IMPRESS project
The Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) is a public research organisation (OPI), dependent on the Ministry of Science and Innovation, devoted to marine-science research, especially in relation to scientific knowledge of the oceans, the sustainability of fishery resources and the marine environment. The IEO represents Spain in most international scientific and technological forums related to the sea and its resources. It has nine coastal oceanographic centres, five marine-culture experimentation plants, 12 tide-gauge stations, a satellite-image receiving station and a fleet consisting of four oceanographic vessels, among which the Ramón Margalef and the Ángeles Alvariño stand out. The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and, in particular, the Operational Programme for R&D&I by and for Business Services (Technology Fund), participates in co-financing the vessels Ramón Margalef, Ángeles Alvariño and Francisco de Paula Navarro, as well as the Liropus 2000 Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV).
More information | Uxía Tenreiro | IEO Vigo Communication Officer | uxia.tenreiro@ieo.es | 986 49 21 11