Great Ormes Head to Dee Estuary; also Red Wharf Bay and Ribble Estuary

Fish morphology, age and physiology; Fish taxonomy-related abundance per unit area of the bed; Fish taxonomy-related ash-free dry weight biomass per unit area of the bed; Fish taxonomy-related counts; Sediment grain size parameters; Zoobenthos taxonomic abundance; Zoobenthos taxonomy-related counts; Zoobenthos generic abundance

Pelagic trawl nets; sediment grabs; manual biota samplers

This comprises a study of flatfish nursery population (with emphasis on commercially important species such as plaice and sole) to examine factors which influence distribution and year class strength of 0-groups in first few months of life. Developments include the assessment of abundance, biomass and production of all mobile epibenthic predators which compete for resources with flatfish juveniles. This research is focused on the centre of a large nursery ground on the North Wales coast, close to Rhyl, Clwyd.

Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Lowestoft Laboratory
Pakefield Road
Lowestoft
Suffolk
NR33 OHT
United Kingdom