Cefas 2000 Young Fish Survey: Sole and Plaice Abundance in Morecambe Bay

Morecambe Bay and surrounding British coastal waters were surveyed by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) from September 9 to 13, 2000. The survey collected station, catch, length, and biological data for Sole and Plaice to evaluate recruitment, as part of the International Young Fish Survey. Operations were conducted at 32 stations using a 2-meter beam trawl, resulting in catches of 62 different species.

Use Cases

• Modeling recruitment trends for Sole and Plaice based on the biological data collected.
• Analyzing species diversity and small fish abundance from the catch data across 32 stations.
• Studying the spatial distribution of young fish in coastal ecosystems based on the station location data.
• Comparing historical survey data from the International Young Fish Survey time-series mentioned in the description.

Strengths

• Survey operations were conducted at 32 specific stations, providing spatial structure.
• Catches included 62 different species, indicating broad taxonomic coverage.
• Data includes biological samples for key commercial species (Sole and Plaice).
• Survey is part of a long-term monitoring program (International Young Fish Survey) running from 1981 to 2010.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to a single survey in September 2000.

Provenance

Source

Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas)

Collection Method

Beam trawl survey (2m shrimp net with fryma liner and 3 chains) at predefined stations.

Time Range

2000-09 09 to 2000-09-13

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

Morecambe Bay and predominantly the South and East coasts of the British Isles