Project WESTHER

. A multidisciplinary approach to the identification of herring (Clupea harengus L.) stock components west of the British Isles using biological tags and genetic markers

Acronym: WESTHER

Funding agency: European Union (EU QLRT-2001-01056)

Project duration: 36 months (starting date still not finally fixed)

Objectives: Herring are important in EU commercial fisheries. They are highly migratory and it is not uncommon for them to be caught in management areas outside their area of origin. Assessment of stocks under these circumstances is problematic. We aim to describe the inter-relationships of herring stocks to the west of the British Isles through a combination of traditional and novel biological tools and multivariate statistical techniques, to provide a framework for discriminating between stocks. Our research, therefore, aims to provide an unambiguous classification of herring in the catch, such that they can be assigned to their areas of origin. This will provide the basis for a sound assessment for the management and the conservation of biodiversity

WESTHER's goal is to describe the structure of herring stocks in western European waters, distributed from the Celtic Sea to the north-west of Scotland. This goal can be split into four objectives:

1. Estimation of genetic and phenotypic differentiation among spawning aggregations: analysis of ripe-and-running herring from the major spawning grounds in the area to determine the number of stock components present, to provide the stock structure reference collection against which non-spawners will be assessed.
2. Determination of stock origins and life history of juveniles: comparisons of the genetic and developmental attributes of juveniles from nursery and overwintering grounds with the spawning reference collections, to enable an estimation of natal stock and subsequent spawning stock affiliation to be made.
3. Determination of composition of feeding aggregations: comparisons of non-spawning stock feeding aggregations fished commercially with the spawning reference collections, to see if feeding aggregations are stock specific or not. In the case of the latter the proportions of each stock component fished within a particular area could be determined.
4. Improved guidelines for the conservation and management of biodiversity and stock preservation by incorporation of the findings into the assessment processes for western herring.

Participating institutions:

University of Aberdeen (Uni Abdn), UK/Scotland (financial co-ordination)
Fisheries Research Services (FRS), Scotland (scientific co-ordination)
Bundesforschungsanstalt für Fischerei (BFAFI), Institut für Seefischerei Hamburg, Germany
Marine Institute (MI), Ireland
University of Cork (UCC), Ireland
University of Liverpool (U Liv), UK/England

Extensive information on this project can be found on WESTHER's website which is hosted by clupea.net here!

entered by (Date)
Christopher Zimmermann (20-03-02)