WP1: Characterization of essential juvenile habitats – Acoustic surveys

• Standardized methodologies and guidelines for Med acoustic surveys on small pelagic juveniles

• Characteristics of juvenile habitats and prediction of potential nursery areas through Essential Fish Habitat analysis

• Maps and models of juvenile presence/absence and abundance from acoustic data in relation to topographic/oceanographic variables through GAM, GIS (Geographic Information System).

WP2: Late larvae habitats and fisheries

• Hydrodynamic model simulating the advection and the dispersion of eggs, larvae and late larvae from spawning areas

• Common methodology for post-larval monitoring using echo-sounders

 WP3: Ecology of late larvae and juveniles

• Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the diet for late-larvae and juveniles

• Estimation of both the diel cycle of feeding and the daily ration of the species at each ontogenetic stage

• Qualitative and quantitative analysis of micro and mesozooplankton

• Growth rates of late larvae and early juveniles in the different areas by daily increment counts on sagitta otoliths

• Comparison of feeding and growth rate during stages previous to recruitment in the 3 different location of the Mediterranean and under different ecological and oceanographic conditions

WP4: Assessment of gear selectivity and changes in fishing strategy

• Software simulation for the pair pelagic trawl (Adriatic Sea) and the single rope pelagic trawl (Gulf of Lions) to optimise the designs of selective pelagic trawl gears and produce innovations in the traditional commercial pelagic trawl

• Improvement of the existing pelagic pair-trawl (Adriatic Sea) selectivity with integrating devices for both by-catch exclusion and by-catch size selection

• Experimental rope trawl with a horizontal separator panel and 2 codends determining segregation properties for pelagic species entering trawl either according to their specific behavioural reactions to the gear or to their morphological differences

WP5: Improvement of the stock assessment methodology

• Stock assessment models for application to Mediterranean small pelagic stocks (i.e. Catch at age analysis (ICA), Biomass difference models or Length based analysis, VPA-type methods)

• Methodology to assess the impact on the stocks of fisheries targeting late larvae and juveniles