Modelling spatial dynamics of North Sea demersal fish stocks

This is a Department for Environment, Fisheries and Rural Affairs (Defra)  funded project which aims to gather together behavioural information (from free-swimming plaice tagged with electronic data storage tags) with physical information (tidal stream and residual drift vectors), to construct a spatially and temporally structured simulation model of population movement for plaice in the North Sea and adjacent areas. Other sources of data will also be evaluated to provide inputs to models for natural mortality, age-dependent spawning and annual recruitment. The finished model will eventually be used to test the predicted outcomes of proposed fisheries management options.

Example data storage tag plot