This study examines the gut contents of 203 early juvenile Atlantic cod [17–101 mm ± 18.48 mm standard deviation (SD)] from the Western Baltic Sea (ICES Subdivision 22) collected between 2020 and 2022. According to the observed prey (proportion of pelagic, intermediate and benthic items) in the cod guts, settlement transition from a pelagic to a benthic lifestyle is estimated to take place at 46–87 mm cod total length (TL). Co...

The common brown shrimp, Crangon crangon , plays a vital role in the coastal North Sea ecosystems, contributing significantly to the trophic dynamics. This small but highly abundant crustacean is also of economic importance, forming the basis of an approximately 400 vessel strong fishery. Specimens of the common brown shrimp, C. crangon , were deprived of food and subsequently re-fed under controlled conditions (17 ± 1.7 °C, a...

Daily formation of fish otolith micro-increments is frequently assumed, however applying inferences about timing of life history events and formation of otolith macro-structures requires further validation of the periodicity of micro-increment formation. We analysed micro-increments from Western Baltic cod (WBC, Gadus morhua ) otoliths marked with tetracycline-hydrochloride as part of an age validation study to test the assump...

This study presents the diet composition of western Baltic cod Gadus morhua based on 3150 stomachs sampled year‐round between 2016 and 2017 using angling, gillnetting and bottom trawling, which enhanced the spatio‐temporal coverage of cod habitats. Cod diet composition in shallow areas ( Carcinus maneas . Compared to historic diet data from the 1960s and 1980s (limited to depth >20 m), the contribution of herring Clupea hareng...

Life cycle closure for species inhabiting areas with daily varying currents but directed net water transport requires specific behavior to minimize losses due to advection of passive drifting life stages. Variations in swimming activity of different‐sized C rangon crangon (15–65 mm total length) were therefore monitored under constant laboratory conditions immediately after being caught in the G erman W adden S ea. Activity of...

Otolith microstructure analysis and hydrodynamic modelling were combined to study growth patterns in young‐of‐the‐year (YoY) sprat, Sprattus sprattus , which were sampled in October 2002 in the central Baltic Sea. The observed ‘window of survival’, approximated by the distribution of back‐calculated days of first feeding (DFF), was narrow compared to the extended spawning season of sprat in the Baltic Sea (mean± SD = 22 June ±...

The brown shrimp C. crangon supports a large commercial fishery in British, Belgian, Dutch, German and Danish waters. It produces eggs throughout the year with two seasonal peaks in summer and winter, respectively. Uncertainty exists with regard to the relative importance of the two egg production seasons for the mass invasion of juvenile recruits of 10–20 mm length in May/June, which is the dominant seasonal signal in the Ger...