The dispersal of plaice eggs and larvae in the Southern Bight of the North Sea

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Abstract
Investigations of the dispersal of the eggs and larvae of the plaice in the Southern Bight of the North Sea have involved measurement of the egg and larval distributions, the dye tracer Rhodamine-B and an array of moored current meters. The spread of the egg and larval distributions changed little as the eggs and larvae developed, suggesting that turbulent diffusion was at a comparatively slow rate. This conclusion was supported by the results of the tracer experiment and the application of a mathematical model of diffusion. In this area the vertical shear diffusion process is much more important than horizontal turbulence in producing dispersal. The current meter results showed that in the central Southern Bight there was little difference between water movements at different geographical positions. Provided that attention was confined to water movements along the main tidal axis, the current meter results and the movement of the Rhodamine patch showed a constant proportionality to water movements through the Dover Strait. A marked difference between the northeasterly drift of larvae in 1962 and 1969 was found to correspond to similar differences in the flow through the Dover Strait.

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