In all, over 50 taxonomic groups of ichthyoplankton were identified, but we focused on the 6 most abundant groups of fish larvae, clupeids (Clupeidae), Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), rocklings, horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus), whiting (Merlangius merlangus), and gadoids (Gadidae). These were the only taxonomic groups for which we had enough positive samplings points in order to produces maps of distribution.

The data are aggregated by 7 years periods (1: 1957 to 1963, 2: 1964 to 1970, 3: 1971 to 1977, 4: 1978 to 1984, 5: 1985 to 1991, 6: 1992 to 1998 and 7: 1999 to 2005) and by trimesters. The number of points by year/trimester periods is calculated. For each year/trimester period, the number of non-zero observation for each species/species group is also calculated. If this number is less than 10, the species/group species and period is plotted as a bubble plot. If it is more than 10, the sampling will be interpolated by kriging to have a presence map in the whole area