1) Demographic traits These data are published data of age-specific mortality rates, age-specific lengths or weights, length and age at maturity, fecundity-length relationships, and egg size for 84 populations from 49 species of primarily commercial teleost fishes. The populations included are those for which all the life history traits under study have been estimated over a period shorter than 10 years. Traits were estimated from within the ten year window or averaged across it when data were available. Only studies in which reference population, sample size, techniques used for ageing fish and counting eggs, and models used for estimating mortality were reported are included. When only a size or age range was available, the midpoint between the extreme values was used. Raw data were converted into seven demographic traits: - Time-to-5%-survival (T.05): the time elapsed from sexual maturity until 95% of a cohort is dead. T.05 fwas estimated from an exponential mortality model, based on total mortality coefficients estimated by Virtual Population Analysis (age-structured model) in most cases or cohort analysis or catch curves. - Length-at-5%-survival (L.05). In fishes, adult size is difficult to measure because of their indeterminate growth. Adult size reported here is length at time-to-5%-survival. - Age at sexual maturity (Tm): median age at maturity was estimated directly from the data or by fitting a logistic curve to age-specific proportion mature data. When only an age range was available, the midpoint between minimum and maximum is reported. - Length at sexual maturity (Lm): median length at maturity was estimated as age at maturity. - Slope of the fecundity-length relationship (Fb): fish fecundity, defined as the number of eggs present in the ovaries immediately before spawning, is known to increase intraspecifically with the size of females. This increase is usually described by a power-law F = aLb. The exponent of this relationship, b (slope of the log-log fecundity-length regression), accounts for the increase in fecundity with size. - Fecundity at maturity (Fm): fecundity in the year of maturity was estimated from length at maturity, the fecundity-length relationship and the number of spawning bouts per year for batch spawners. - Egg volume (Egg): When information on egg size was unavailable in specific papers, values were borrowed from other studies, using the following criteria in the descending order: from the same period, the same population, the same species. In five species of Perciformes no estimate was available for any population, thus egg volume was estimated from other species of the same family. 2) Fishing pressure Three types of environments with low, moderate and high fishing pressure were defined. - To scale the pressure exerted by fishing to the natural population turn-over, it was expressed as the ratio of fishing mortality to natural mortality rates (F/M). Data were gathered from the literature together with demographic traits. Authors use the following methods to estimate natural mortality rates: intercept of a regression of total mortality on fishing effort, linear relationship known between estimates of natural mortality, growth parameters and the temperature, or multispecies models. Fishing mortality rates were estimated from Virtual Population Analysis or cohort analysis, or as the difference between total and natural mortality. Three levels of fishing pressure were defined: low fishing pressure (fishing mortality lower than natural mortality, F/M < 1), intermediate (1 <= F/M < 2) and high (F/M >= 2).

Data were collected from the regional program LOUPE (Observation of the habitat and associated communities in the context of the fisheries of the Capbreton Canyon). It consisted in the observations of two métiers practiced around the canyon. The observations were carried out between July 2011 and April 2013 on coastal boats. Observations and interviews were made on board commercial vessels. The longlines used in the hake fishery are semi-pelagic and are deployed on the edge of the Capbreton Canyon. It is an emblematic and major métier benefiting from a particular regulation as they take advantage of a prohibition of net and trawl fishing on their fishing grounds. Between 8 and 14 costal boats practice this métier during the year and the fleet characteristics are homogeneous. Boats lay between 1,200 and 1,800 hooks per day, baited with frozen pilchard (Sardina pilchardus). Two or three men are on board these vessels. Fishing is mostly practiced in spring and summer but a small number of vessels work all year. Generally, trips last between ten and twelve hours; longline is set before sunrise and retrieved three or four hours later. Hake is the main targeted species; other targets are pollack (Pollachius pollachius), red sea bream (Pagellus bogaraveo) and conger (Conger conger). Netting is a major métier in terms of vessels involved and the number of trips. Crew composition varies and depends on boat length (from one to four men on average). This métier is practiced by 30 to 35 boats all year round, but fleet characteristics are less homogeneous than in the case of longliners . The strategy of these netters operating in the coastal area is based on the use of several types of nets (gillnets and trammel nets) targeting several species, often sold directly to consumers on the docks. Gillnets, consisting of a single mesh, target hake, sea bass and sea bream species (Diplodus spp, Sparus aurata, Litognathus mormyrus), while the trammel nets (three meshes) are used to capture benthic fish, such as common sole, monkfish (Lophius spp), turbot and brill (Scophthalmus rhombus). Generally, trips last less than twelve hours for coastal netters (less than 15 m), which predominate in the sector, and a few days for large netters. On average, the coastal vessels set 6000 to 8000 m. nets daily.

The Delmoges project aims to generate new ecological and fisheries knowledge to reduce dolphin bycatch in the Bay of Biscay (GoG). This dataset presents maps produced by a hierarchical model of the seasonal and interannual distribution of dolphins' main prey, small pelagic fish. The model integrates 3 types of data: presence-absence and biomass of fish from scientific campaigns and presence of fish from fishing data. For the first time, the model has provided a quantitative description of the seasonal spatial dynamics of sardines and associated fisheries. The main sardine distribution areas were coastal, from the mouth of the Gironde to south-west Brittany. On average, sardines were distributed over a wider area in small aggregations in spring. They seemed to concentrate in their main distribution areas in summer, and to disperse offshore in autumn, but to a lesser extent than in spring. Fishing was concentrated in the sardine's main coastal distribution areas, and was more intense in summer, then autumn, and less intense in spring.

The data come from organisms and pictures collected during the MEDITS annual bottom trawl surveys conducted between 2011 and 2013 (Bertrand et al. 2002). MEDITS surveys cover the continental shelf (10 m to 200 m depth) and the upper part of the continental slope (200 m to 800 m) on the Mediterranean. A total of 1511 individuals from 85 fish species were collected from seven Mediterranean areas (South Adriatic Sea, Sardinia, Gulf of Lions, around Cyprus, Mallorca, Tyrrhenian Sea, and North West Ionian Sea). A set of 14 morphological traits related to the habitat and the diet of the species were measured in the field and on pictures using the ImageJ software (version 1.47, http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/) (see Granger et al. 2015 and Brind'Amour et al. submitted for details) (Figure 1). Replicats of measures vary between 1 (e.g. Scorpaena loppei) to 53 (e.g. Serranus hepatus) according to fish species. Twelve of the chosen traits consist in continuous biological characteristics measured on each individual (measured in cm). The two remaining traits are categorical and determined at the species level.

The anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) and sardine (Sardina pilchardus) populations in the Bay of Biscay are jointly surveyed each year in May since 2000 and in September since 2003 by means of acoustic surveys. The integrated survey PELGAS (Doray et al., 2018) is run in May by France and covers the French shelf of the Bay of Biscay. Its objectives are to monitor the Bay of Biscay pelagic ecosystem in springtime and assess the biomass of its small pelagic fish species, including sardine and anchovy. Amongst many information on the ecosystem, the survey PELGAS provides knowledge on the adults of anchovy and sardine during their spawning in spring. The survey JUVENA (Boyra et al., 2013) is run in September by Spain. It has a larger spatial coverage than PELGAS, including part of the Spanish coast and open ocean outside the shelf because it targets juvenile anchovy. It also provides knowledge on sardine as well as other pelagic species. Both surveys are coordinated by the ICES Working Group on Acoustic and Egg Surveys for Small Pelagic Fish (WGACEGG), together with other pelagic surveys in ICES areas 7, 8 and 9. Survey protocoles are detailed in Doray et al. (2021). Briefly, fish backscatter data are recorded along the survey transect lines and pelagic trawl hauls are undertaken opportunistically to identify the echotraces to species and collect fish samples for biometric data. The trawl haul catches have provided the anchovy and sardine length data, from which the maps presented here are derived. At each trawl haul, the catch is sorted by species and weighted. A subsample by species is measured to estimate the species’ length distribution. The four maps presented here correspond to the average maps of anchovy and sardine length distributions in May and September, derived from the PELGAS and JUVENA trawl haul data series. The maps were obtained by kriging, following the procedure explained in Petitgas et al. (2011) for mapping functions instead of variables. For each species, the experimental length distribution at each haul was fitted by a linear combination of Legendre polynomials, the coefficients of which were co-kriged. The number of polynomials varied from 15 to 22 depending on the survey and species, with a higher number for sardine and in autumn. The length histogram at each grid node was then deduced from the mapped coefficients. When the length distribution at a given haul was estimated with less than 40 individual fish, the haul was not taken into account for mapping. This threshold defined presence and absence of the species in the haul data sets. The trawl hauls from 2000 to 2019 were pooled for the PELGAS series (1965 stations) and from 2003 to 2020 for JUVENA (852 stations). The mapping was performed on the same grid for both PELGAS and JUVENA and both species, and with similar moving kriging neighbourhoods. The grid has a mesh size of 0.25 x 0.25 decimal degree square. In addition to mapping the length distribution, presence/absence was mapped for each species by ordinary kriging on the same grid and with the same neighbourhoods as previously. The computations were performed in R (version 4.0.5) with the RGeostats package (version 13.0.1) freely available at http://rgeostats.free.fr. The map data files comprise for each species the following information: the geographical coordinates of the grid points, the probability of presence and the probability of each length class of width 0.5 cm ranging from 2.5 to 27 cm.

These data are outputs of a spatio-temporal model inferring fish distribution. The maps are based on high-resolution catch data (VMS-logbook). They have a montly time resolution and a 0.05° spatial resolution. Four demersal species of the Bay of Biscay are available in the dataset: common sole (Solea solea), megrim (Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis), anglerfish (Lophius spp) and thornback ray (Raja clavata). Maps are provided for year 2008 to 2018 ; they were produced in the context of the MACCO project (https://www.macco.fr/en/accueil-english/), an Ifremer project that aims at proposing alternative management strategies for the mixed demersal fisheries of the Bay of Biscay.

Ensemble simulations of the ecosystem model Apecosm (https://apecosm.org) forced by the IPSL-CM6-LR climate model with the climate change scenario SSP1-2.6. The output files contain yearly mean biomass density for 3 communities (epipelagic, mesopelagic migratory and mesopelagic redidents) and 100 size classes (ranging from 0.12cm to 1.96m) The model grid file is also provided. Units are in J/m2 and can be converted in kg/m2 by dividing by 4e6. These outputs are associated with the "Assessing the time of emergence of marine ecosystems from global to local scales using IPSL-CM6A-LR/APECOSM climate-to-fish ensemble simulations" paper from the Earth's Future "Past and Future of Marine Ecosystems" Special Collection.

In 1967, E.Postel, researcher at the OSTPM (Scientific and Technical Office for Maritime Fisheries) set up a data collection system on albacore catches by French fleets. JC Dao and FX Bard continued this work within CNEXO (National Center for the Exploitation of Oceans) and then at IFREMER from 1984. This information was transmitted by fishing professionals via logbooks, on the basis of volunteering (Dao, 1971, Bard, 1977). In 1982, the European Community put in place a mandatory system of declarations of fishing effort and catches via logbooks (EC Regulation No. 2057 in Sanchez and Santurtun, 2013). As a result, the two systems persisted between 1982 and 1986, with European logbooks gradually supplanting logbooks

Ensemble simulations of the ecosystem model Apecosm (https://apecosm.org) forced by the IPSL-CM6-LR climate model with the climate change scenario SSP5-8.5. The output files contain yearly mean biomass density for 3 communities (epipelagic, mesopelagic migratory and mesopelagic redidents) and 100 size classes (ranging from 0.12cm to 1.96m) The model grid file is also provided. Units are in J/m2 and can be converted in kg/m2 by dividing by 4e6. These outputs are associated with the "Assessing the time of emergence of marine ecosystems from global to local scales using IPSL-CM6A-LR/APECOSM climate-to-fish ensemble simulations" paper from the Earth's Future "Past and Future of Marine Ecosystems" Special Collection.

The Pélagiques Gascogne (PELGAS, Doray et al., 2000) integrated survey aims at assessing the biomass of small pelagic fish and monitoring and studying the dynamics and diversity of the Bay of Biscay pelagic ecosystem in springtime. PELGAS has been conducted within the EU Common Fisheries Policy Data Collection Framework and Ifremer’s Fisheries Information System. Details on survey protocols and data processing methodologies can be found in Doray et al., (2014, 2018). This dataset comprises the abundance (no. of individuals), biomass (metric tons), mean length (cm), mean weight (g) of marine organisms collected by midwater trawling to identify fish echoes detected during PELGAS surveys (2000-2018). All parameters have been raised to the trawl haul level. Trawl haul metadata and species reference list are also provided.