CEFAS24-44 Contract for pollack population size study

Following the recent Defra announcement of a scientific assessment to understand more about the stock structure and abundance of Pollack, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) invited commercial fishers to register their interest in joining a study using genetic tools to estimate the population size of pollack in the western English Channel (ICES subdivision 7.e.) The study will be delivered in collaboration with commercial pollack fishing specialists (i.e. fishers who have specifically targeted pollack) with local knowledge of spawning adult and juvenile locations, to assist in the targeted sampling of fish. We expect to commission a total of 100 days of vessel time, ideally spread over a number of vessels from a limited range of sites and evenly over time until February 2025. We aim to collect genetic material, length and weight info from around 3000 individual fish, together with the coordinates of capture. The aim is to sample 30 fish per sampling day.