A three area model for blue whiting in the northeast Atlantic: impacts of climate change and estimates of zooplankton consumption

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.

Blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) is a widely distributed species in the eastern part of the North Atlantic, ranging from Norway to Portugal. The population is comprised of at least two sub-components (a northern and a southern component) both of which spawn along the shelf edge and on banks west of the British Isles. Blue whiting is however currently managed as a single stock, despite clear evidence of morphological and genetic differences. In this contribution, we develop a 3 area GADGET model for blue whiting. The model was tuned using survey data from the three (north, central and south) regions spanning the period 1984-2011.