Norwegian blue whiting investigation in April/May 1980.

Abstract

An acoustic survey on the blue whiting stock was conducted from 8 April to 14 May 1980. The area west of the British Isles was covered twice and then the area around the Farces and further up to Shetland and the Norwegian coast covered once. Blue whiting was recorded in the area around the Faroes and along the slope continously south to the Porcupinebank, with densest concentrations found off the Hebrides. The hydrographical situation is presented and also the age and length compositions, maturity conditions and the length-weight relationships of the blue whiting in the area. Higher contributions of young fish were found to represent the blue whiting stock in the spawning area, than observed in recent years. Acoustic abundance estimate gave a figure of 5.4 mill.tonnes of blue whiting, which is 2,5 mill.tonnes lesser than the recalculated figure of 1979.