Report of the Study Group on Regional Scale Ecology of Small Pelagic Fish (SGRESP)

A component of the ecosystem approach to fisheries management is to include the environmentally induced variation in fish stocks. In that respect, the Study Group on Regional Scale Ecology of Small Pelagic Fish (SGRESP) was concerned with cross-mapping fish population life cycle and oceanographic features, and identifying favourable habitats together with variation in their forcings across years.Original data sets were collated at regional scale, initiating unique data analyses. The compilation of CUFES egg data and CTD profiles in Biscay and around the Iberian Peninsula enabled the full scale analysis of potential spawning habitats of sardine and anchovy. The compilation of anchovy catch by length in all ICES coordinated bottom trawl surveys in the North East Atlantic enabled the long-term large-scale analyses of anchovy fluctuations in the NEA. In particular, North Sea IBTS surveys coupled with the ICES oceanographic data base allowed for an understanding of the expansion of anchovy in the North Sea since the mid-1990s and its seasonal life cycle spatial pattern.