• Observing and modelling
• Marine Climate Change Centre (MC3)
• Ecosystems and biodiversity
• Assessing human impacts
• Animal health and food safety
• Fisheries information
  • Fisheries Science Partnership
  • Commercial species
  • Discards and fishing gear technology
  • Tagging programmes
  • Ecologically important fish habitats
    • Distribution of spawning and nursery grounds
  • Ageing fish
  • Recreational sea angling
  • Surveys
  • Deep-water species, NE Atlantic
  • Under-utilised species
  • Freshwater fisheries
  • Non-native species
  • Salmonids
  • Eels
  • Fish stomach records
  • Fish-eating birds
  • Unusual fish
  • Species of conservation importance

Distribution of spawning and nursery grounds

In 1981, scientists at Lowestoft produced an atlas of the seas around the British Isles, in which the spawning grounds of several commercial fish were illustrated.

During the late 1990s, a collaborative project between the national fisheries laboratories (Cefas and the then Fisheries Research Services, Aberdeen), the UK Offshore Operator's Association (UKOOA), the Scottish Fishermen's Association (SFF) and the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations (NFFO) produced the Fisheries Sensitivity Maps in British Waters. This report (Coull et al., 1998) included maps of the main spawning and nursery grounds for 14 commercially important species (cod, haddock, whiting, saithe, Norway pout, blue whiting, mackerel, herring, sprat, sandeels, plaice, lemon sole, sole and Norway lobster).

More recently, Cefas scientists have undertaken additional analyses to complement the original maps and to:

(a)    Provide supporting evidence for the maps of spawning and nursery grounds;

(b)   Provide some of the more recent data that has become available since the original Fisheries Sensitivity Maps were produced;

(c)    Increase the number of species for which maps are available;

(d)   Plot the spawning areas as rectangles, so that the user is more likely to infer that the boundaries of such areas are not fixed delineations between spawning and non-spawning areas;

(e)   Provide more information on those grounds likely to be of greater importance to the stock(s)

Fisheries Sensitivity Maps in British Waters

Fisheries Sensitivity Maps in British Waters (Data layers)

Spawning and nursery areas of fish of commercial and conservation importance (Technical Report 147)

Spawning and nursery areas of fish of commercial and conservation importance (Data layers)