By Sid Perkins
Data collected by Earth-orbiting satellites and oceangoing trawlers suggest that juvenile haddock off Nova Scotia are more abundant in years when plankton populations peak earlier than normal.
Scientists have been surveying the abundance of fish off the eastern coast of Nova Scotia since 1970, says Trevor Platt of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. One index used to characterize fish survival is the number of fish less than 2 years old in a catch divided by the weight of older fish taken. That index was particularly high in 1981 and 1999, indicating an abundant juvenile population.