Sole (Solea solea) in Division 27.8ab

The Bay of Biscay sole stock extends on the shelf that lies along Atlantic French coast from the Spanish border to the West Point of Brittany. This shelf forms a geographical unit, being narrow at its two extreme parts, particularly in the south. As sole is chiefly present at less than 150 m, this geography of the living area gives some supports to the absence or only limited exchanges with other southern or northern stocks. However, a tagging experiment carried out in 1992 on two nursery areas has shown that fish may move from the southern coast of Brittany to the Iroise Sea, in the West of Brittany (Koutsikopoulos et al., 1993).

Several spawning grounds are known at depth from 30 to 100 m, from south to north (Arbault et al., 1986):

• in the north of Capbreton, off the Landes coast,
• between Arcachon and the Gironde estuary,
• in front of La Rochelle,
• in front of the Loire estuary,
• in several but limited areas off the southern coast of Brittany.