September 7, 2015 — UK fisheries survey logbooks from the 1930s to 1950s have been digitised for the first time, revealing how cod responded to changing temperatures in the last century.
Scientists at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the University of Exeter found that at the time, the warm seas experienced around Norway benefitted the cod, similar to the conditions there today.
Most cod eaten by the UK comes from northern seas including the Barents Sea around Norway, because the stocks there at the moment are at record highs. Cod stocks were also big in the middle of the last century, and this new research, published in PLOS ONE, reveals that the environmental conditions at the time contributed to the change. Cod diet data reveals that their food preferences each year, between capelin, herring, crustaceans and cod cannibalism, were also affected by their environment.
Cefas holds many records from historical survey cruises, many of them in the form of paper log books. A recent programme of work concentrated on cataloguing and digitising these documents, where possible, to ensure that they are not lost and can be made freely available. More of Cefas’ data, with the exception of data owned by industry, will continue to be made available over this year.