Marine climate and mackerel distribution

During fall 2012, the Polar research institutes in Russia (PINRO) and the Faroe marine research institute (FAMRI) continued the collaboration and the scientific work initiated in Tórshavn March 2006 on how the marine climate in the southern Nordic Seas might influence the spatial distribution of the mackerel stock in the Nordic Seas. Commercial catch data from the Russian fleet were analyzed together with a selection of comprehensive spatio-temporal oceanographic and biological observations. Pronounced sub-decadal variability is found both in the physical and the biological data, and the apparent synchronicity between these allows us to hypothesize three plausible mechanistic linkages. Much of the variability is ascribed to the spatially shifting Iceland-Faroe Front, and metrices for these fluctuations are presented. Our analysis should merely be regarded as ground work, upon which more detailed and finalized work could be conducted. We suggest continued Russian-Faroese collaboration, to further pursue these important questions.