Cefas CHMR 2/06: Western English Channel Groundfish Survey, October 2006

A fisheries-independent survey conducted by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas) in October 2006. The survey sampled 58 trawl stations in the Western English Channel, catching 114 different species to provide abundance indices for sole and plaice. It was part of an annual series running from 1984 to 2013, carried out on the chartered commercial vessel Carhelmar.

Use Cases

• Tuning ICES stock assessments based on fisheries-independent abundance indices mentioned in the description.
• Analyzing species composition and biodiversity based on the 114 species caught during the survey.
• Studying spatial distribution of groundfish based on the 58 sampled trawl stations in the English Channel.
• Comparing annual recruitment estimates for sole and plaice as part of the long-term survey series.

Strengths

• Provides fisheries-independent data from 58 specific trawl stations.
• Records catches of 114 different marine species.
• Part of a consistent, long-term annual survey series running from 1984 to 2013.

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 temporal and geographic bias inherent to a single survey in October 2006.

Provenance

Source

Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas), aggregated via EU Open Data.

Collection Method

Scientific survey using 4m beam trawls on a chartered commercial fishing vessel.

Time Range

Survey conducted from 09/10/2006 to 16/10/2006.

Freshness

Data is from a specific survey in 2006; the series ended in 2013.

Geography

Western English Channel, specifically English waters on the main sole grounds.