Life history traits and abundance of Northeast Atlantic fish

Life history characteristics such as asymptotic length L∞, growth rate K,
the length at which 50% of the individuals have reached maturity Lmat, and
natural mortality M are therefore often used to indicate the sensitivity
of different species to fishing. When species-specific information is
missing, an estimate of the maximum length Lmax of a species can be used
to infer asymptotic length, growth rate, natural mortality, and proportion
mature at length. Here, we provide a data base containing life history
parameters of 271 species along with the references of these values
and gear efficiency estimates for all species. Further, we
provide average annual catch indices within inhabitated areas for
each species.