The blue whiting (''Micromesistius poutassou'') one of the two species in the genus '' Micromesistius'' in the order of

Gadiformes Gadiformes , also called the Anacanthini, are an order of ray-finned fish that include the cod, hakes, pollock, haddock, burbot, rocklings and moras, many of which are food fish of major commercial value. They are mostly marine fish found thr ...

, which also contains

cod Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...

haddock The haddock (''Melanogrammus aeglefinus'') is a saltwater ray-finned fish from the Family (biology), family Gadidae, the true cods. It is the only species in the Monotypy, monotypic genus ''Melanogrammus''. It is found in the North Atlantic Oce ...

, whiting, and

pollock Pollock or pollack (pronounced ) is the common name used for either of the two species of North Atlantic ocean, marine fish in the genus ''Pollachius''. ''Pollachius pollachius'' is referred to as "pollock" in North America, Ireland and the Unit ...

. It is common in the northeast Atlantic Ocean from Morocco to

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...

. It also occurs in the northern parts of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, where it may be locally abundant. Blue whiting also occur in the northwest Atlantic Ocean between Canada and Greenland, but is considered rare. It has a long, narrow body and a silvery underbody. 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. A related species, southern blue whiting, ''Micromesistius australis'', occurs in the Southern Hemisphere.

Fisheries

Exploitation of blue whiting only started in the 1970s. The species, in the last decades, has become increasingly important to the fishing industries of northern European countries, including Russia. Catches exceeded 1 million tonnes from 1998 to 2008.ICES Advice 2010: Blue whiting in Subareas I–IX, XII, and XIV (Combined stock)
According to the

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates t ...

, blue whiting was fifth most important capture fish species in 2006.The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2008
/ref> 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. The total quota for 2011 was set to 40,100 tonnes,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
/ref> which is less than 2% of the record catch of 2.4 million tonnes in 2004. Catches in 2011 exceeded the quota by more than 100%. For 2012, ICES advised the catches should be no more than .ICES Advice September 2011. Blue whiting in Subareas I–IX, XII, and XIV (Combined stock)
This large increase relative to the quota in 2011 (but not to the catches 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 coastal states set the total quota for 2012 to 391,000 tonnes. The fish is usually not marketed fresh, but processed into fish meal and oil. However, in Russia, southern Europe, and Japan, 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 An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

(EEZ) of the Faroe Islands, the European Union, Iceland and Norway, as well as the

high seas The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regiona ...

". This means 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; consequently, the total catch greatly exceeded the advised quotas However, the Coastal States (the Faroe Islands, the European Union, Iceland and Norway) reached an agreement in December 2005,Press release: Broad agreement on fisheries between Norway and the EU
/ref> ending the period of what was sometimes referred to as "Olympic fishing". Since 2006, the blue whiting fishery has been regulated under this agreement, which gives the greatest share to the European Union, but through quota swaps, Norway has been holding the largest annual quotas.

References

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

{{Authority control blue whiting Commercial fish Fish of the North Sea Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of Europe Fish of the North Atlantic blue whiting Taxa named by Antoine Risso