The feeding and condition of plaice larvae in good and bad plankton patches

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Abstract
In January and March, during the 1955 plaice spawning season, plankton samples were collected with a Heligoland larva net at stations on a grid around a floating radio buoy in the southern North Sea. There was a decided scarcity of suitable food for plaice larvae in the January patch, and this famine was reflected in the deteriorating physical condition of those larvae caught at the transition stage of development, when yolk reserves were becoming exhausted and an adequate external food supply essential. By March, the spring plankton outburst was in full swing. The condition of transitional larvae improved in this good food patch. Feeding started about the mid-yolk phase, mainly on plants. By the time most of the yolk had been resorbed, the appendicularians Oikopleura and Fritillaria had become the principal food items, and remained so throughout pelagic larval life.
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