Identification

Title

UK Biodiversity Indicator D1a, Fish size classes in the North Sea

Abstract

This spreadsheet is the underlying data for the biodiversity indicator D1a, Fish size classes in the North Sea. Change in relative abundance of large fishes is likely to affect marine ecosystems in a number of ways. Fewer large fishes will reduce the amount of predation on smaller prey species and allow increases in their abundance and biomass. In turn this will affect the structure and stability of the ecosystem. The indicator responds to fishing impacts on the fish community because larger fish are more likely to be caught by trawls and because larger species of fish are more likely to decline in number for a given rate of fishing. When fish communities are more heavily fished, the proportion of large fish is expected to fall and, when fishing is reduced, the proportion of large fish is expected to rise. Some variation in the proportion of large fish will be driven by environmental variation, but available evidence suggests environmental effects on this indicator are relatively small in relation to fishing effects over periods of a few years. The indicator shows changes in the proportion, by weight, of large individuals equal to or over 40cm in length in fish populations in the North-western part of the North Sea. The indicator is based on standardised annual research survey trawls. During the 1980s, large fish in the North Sea fish community included cod (Gadus morhua), haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), saithe (Pollachius virens), ling (Molva molva), anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius) and rays (Batoidea). Recently, haddock have formed a substantial part of the large fish catches in the North-western North Sea, along with cod and saithe. This is one of a suite of 24 UK biodiversity indicators published by JNCC on behalf of Defra; the latest publication date was 19 January 2016 - for indicator D1a the latest data are for 2014. The supporting technical document details the methodology used to create the indicator.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-4248

name: page-4248

Unique resource identifier

code

3742a2e5-361d-43cc-8c98-d42bdbf3215a

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Additional information source

http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-4248 Data set supported by a Word document (D1a - Biodiversity and ecosystem services - Fish size classes in the North Sea.docx) containing all of the website text, three jpeg images (UKBI2015_D1ai_Final.jpg, UKBI2015_D1aii_Final.jpg, UKBI2015_D1aiii_Final.jpg), and a technical document (UKBI2015_TechBG_D1a_Final.doc) detailing the methodology used to create the indicator.

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

environment

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Terrestrial

UK Biodiversity

Fish

Evidence

Biodiversity

Ecosystem services

indicator

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-8.65

East bounding longitude

2.0

North bounding latitude

61.0

South bounding latitude

49.77

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

1983

End position

2014

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-19

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Source: Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science; Marine Scotland.

Conformity

Data format

name of format

Microsoft Excel for Windows

version of format

Unknown

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Released under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Attribution statement "Contains public sector information from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and Marine Scotland, licenced under the Open Government Licence v3.0"

Limitations on public access

No limitations

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

Digital and Data Solutions, JNCC

email address

data@jncc.gov.uk

responsible party role

distributor

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

Digital and Data Solutions, JNCC

email address

data@jncc.gov.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2018-05-17

Metadata language

eng