- Blue whiting
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Blue whiting 
Blue whiting on a Faroese stamp. Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Order: Gadiformes Family: Gadidae Genus: Micromesistius Species: M. poutassou Binomial name Micromesistius poutassou
Antoine Risso (1826)The blue whiting, Micromesistius poutassou, is one of the two species in the genus Micromesistius in the cod family, common in the North-East Atlantic ocean, from Morocco to Iceland and Spitsbergen. Blue whiting also occur in the North-West Atlantic ocean between Canada and Greenland. It has a long, narrow body and a silvery under body. The fish can attain a length of more than 40 cm. The average length of blue whiting caught off the west shores of the UK is 31 cm.[1]
A related species, southern blue whiting, Micromesistius australis, occurs on the southern hemisphere.
Contents
Fisheries
Exploitation of blue whiting only started in the 1970s. Blue whiting has in the last decades become an increasingly important species to the fishing industries of northern European countries as well as Russia. Catches exceeded 1 million tonnes from 1998 to 2008[2]. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), blue whiting was 5th most important capture fish species in 2006[3]. However, recruitment of the stock fell to a low level in 2006 and has been weak ever since, causing declining spawning stock and eventually triggering strong reductions in catch quotas. The reasons for low recruitment in recent years are poorly known[2]. The total quota for 2011 was set to 40,100 tonnes[4], which is less than 2% of the record catch of 2.4 million tonnes in 2004.
For 2012 ICES advises that catches should be no more than 391,000 tonnes [5]. This large increase relative to the quota in 2011 (but not to the cathces in 1998-2008) is caused by a revision in the stock assessment; however, recruitment to the stock is still low and the stock is forecasted to decline.
The fish is usually not marketed fresh, but processed into fish meal and oil. However, in Russia and in southern Europe blue whiting are sometimes sold as food fish.
Management
Blue whiting in the northeast Atlantic is a straddling stock: it occupies the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Faroe Islands, the European Union, Iceland and Norway as well as the high seas"[6]. This means that effective regulation calls for international co-operation.
Quota advice for blue whiting in the northeast Atlantic is provided by ICES. For a long period, blue whiting fisheries were mainly regulated through nationally-set quotas because there was no international agreement about sharing the total quota [7] ; consequently, the total catch greatly exceeded the advised quotas[2]. However, the Coastal States (the Faroe Islands, the European Union, Iceland and Norway) reached an agreement in December 2005[8], ending the period of what was sometimes referred to as Olympic fishing. Since 2006 the blue whiting fishery has been regulated under this agreement. The agreement gives the greatest share to the European Union, however, through quota swaps Norway has been holding the largest annual quotas.
Blue whiting sold for human consumption in Spain.
References
- ^ Handling and Processing Blue Whiting
- ^ a b c ICES Advice 2010: Blue whiting in Subareas I–IX, XII, and XIV (Combined stock)
- ^ The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2008
- ^ Agreed Record of Conclusions of Fisheries Consultations between the Faroe Islands, the European Union, Iceland and Norway on the Management of Blue Whiting in the North-East Atlantic in 2011
- ^ ICES Advice September 2011. Blue whiting in Subareas I–IX, XII, and XIV (Combined stock)
- ^ Straddling stocks
- ^ Standal, D. 2006. The rise and decline of blue whiting fisheries--capacity expansion and future regulations. Marine Policy 30:315-327.
- ^ Press release: Broad agreement on fisheries between Norway and the EU
External links
- FishBase
- Blue whiting: playing a big game with small fish
- Northeast Atlantic blue whiting. Chapter 11 in Life-cycle spatial patterns of small pelagic fish in the Northeast Atlantic. ICES Cooperative Research Report 306, 2010
- The Marine Flora and Fauna of Norway: Blue whiting (with photographs of living blue whiting!)
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