Long term benthic community dataset for fish and cephalopods on the continental shelves of the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea

EVHOE surveys have been providing observational data on bentho-demersal communities on the continental shelves of the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea for more than 30 years. The surveys operate a standardized fishing gear and are conducted on the continental shelves from 15 to 600 m depth, usually in the fourth quarter of the year, starting at the end of October. The main objectives are the monitoring of 22 stocks of benthic fish species and 10 cephalopods from the North-East Atlantic. The data also provide a description of regional diversity by including 250 taxa of fish and 45 taxa of cephalopods and others “commercial” invertebrates. The dataset is structured in 3 tables providing information on stations, numbers, biomass of observed species and size distributions for a selection of species. This dataset is of great interest for the long-term monitoring of the continental shelves of the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea. Moreover, on a larger scale, by being integrated into a European network of bottom trawl surveys, these data play an essential role in studying the evolution of ecosystems from continental shelves to the scale of the eastern North Atlantic.

Disciplines

Biological oceanography, Fisheries and aquaculture

Keywords

Fisheries survey, Demersal communities, Bottom trawl, Fishes, Cephalopods, Biodiversity, Bay of Biscay, Celtic Sea, GOV, Northern Atlantic, Soft bottom

Location

52N, 43.4S, -1E, -12W

Devices

The dataset is configured in a simplified format including 3 tables in a “.csv” file format (Table below): the "Haul" table including metadata for the sampled stations, the "Catch" table giving total number and biomass of each taxa, the “Size” table that gives length information for the species measured. Except for the proposed simplified format, the data provided are close to the raw data stored in the IFREMER "Harmony" database and have not been subject to any post-processing (except for the necessary calculation in the case of sub-sampling to report the catch at the trawl haul scale). The taxonomic information has been updated using online “World Register of Marine Species” (WoRMS Editorial Board, 2020). The extraction of the taxonomic information (updated valid names, taxonomy and Aphia ID) was performed using dedicated R packages (« worms 0.2.2”  and “worrms 0.4.0”).

Description of data tables and associated fields :

 

 

Data

FileSizeFormatProcessingAccess
"Haul" table including metadata for the sampled stations of EVHOE survey
289 KoTEXTQuality controlled data
"Catch" table giving total number and biomass of each taxa for Evhoe survey
5 MoTEXTQuality controlled data
“Size” table giving length and sex information for a limited list of measured species
37 MoTEXTQuality controlled data
How to cite
Laffargue Pascal, Delaunay Damien, Badts Vincent, Berthele Olivier, Cornou Anne Sophie, Garren Francois (2021). Long term benthic community dataset for fish and cephalopods on the continental shelves of the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea. SEANOE. https://doi.org/10.17882/80041

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