Fish data from the Continuous Plankton Recorder survey

The Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) survey has been sampling plankton in the North Sea since 1931. However the identification of the larval and juvenile fish taken in the survey has not been a part of the routine analysis of the samples. Specialist analysis of the fish was carried out between 1948 and the early 1980s but the data were available as hard copy only. As part of MarBEF, data on >60 taxa from 1948 to 1972 have been entered on a database which is now linked to EUROBIS to show the biogeographical information and the data are available for general research. Examples of the data are shown. These data provide a background on the variability of fish stocks before the recent period of rapid warming and in some cases before significant fisheries developed. Data for subsequent years will be made available as possible and work is now underway to bring the analysis up to date. This will provide time series over six decades.