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abundant between 30m and 100m on a variety of substrates including mud, gravel, sand and rock (Barnes, 2008a). As illustrated by Figure 11.20, whiting are distributed throughout the North Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat (ICES, 2012d) with high densities of both juvenile and adult whiting being found almost anywhere with older individuals (>2yr) showing a preference for deeper waters (Daan et al. 1990).


86.


Juvenile whiting are particularly abundant inshore off the German Bight and the Dutch coast during the summer (ICES, 2012d). As shown in Figure 11.21, East Anglia THREE and the offshore cable corridor are located within broad areas defined as low intensity spawning and nursery grounds for this species (Ellis et al. 2010). It is of note that the distributions of eggs and larvae given in Figure 11.21, reproduced from Ellis et al. (2010) do not correlate with the whiting spawning grounds depicted in by Coull et al. (1998).


87.


The factors that determine spawning ground selection are considered limited, with no clear sediment preference being apparent (Daan et al. 1990, de Oliveria and Elliot, 2010). The species is however, reported to spawn at depths between 50 and 100m (Limpenny et al. 2010).


88. Whiting have one of the longest spawning periods among North Sea species, from February to June, with a peak in April (Loot et al. 2011; Coull et al. 1998).


89.


Recent surveys (van Damme et al. 2011) found stage one whiting eggs in the vicinity of the East Anglia THREE site in June (Diagram 0.5) which coincides with the latter part of the spawning period given in Ellis et al. (2012). Whiting yolk sac larvae were found between January to March during the recent IMARES surveys (van Damme et al. 2011) (Diagram 11.4).


90. Whiting are caught throughout the North Sea, although substantial quantities are also discarded from commercial catches (ICES, 2012d). Landings by weight for whiting are comparatively low in the vicinity of the windfarm analysis area (34F2). Whiting was however one of the top three species caught during the otter trawl fish sampling undertaken in the proposed East Anglia THREE site (Table 11.2).


91.


The charts produced by the CHARM Consortium (Figure 11.22 and Figure 11.23) illustrate considerable variation in the annual abundance and distribution of whiting eggs in the vicinity of the proposed East Anglia THREE site. These suggest an increase in the January egg abundance in the English Channel and southern North


Preliminary Environmental Information May 2014


East Anglia THREE Offshore Windfarm


Appendix 11.2 Page 46


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