Herring are important in EU commercial fisheries. They are highly migratory and it is not uncommon for them to be caught in management areas outside their area of origin. Assessment of stocks under these circumstances is problematic. We aim to describe the inter-relationships of herring stocks to the west of the British Isles through a combination of traditional and novel biological tools and multivariate statistical techniques, to provide a framework for discriminating between stocks.

Our research, therefore, aims to provide an unambiguous classification of herring in the catch, such that they can be assigned to their areas of origin. This will provide the basis for a sound assessment for the management and the conservation of biodiversity.

Objectives
WESTHER's goal is to describe the structure of herring stocks in western European waters, distributed from the Celtic Sea to the north-west of Scotland.