The AHA project (2018-2020) developed and applied novel methods of age estimation based on seasonal patterns in chemical composition of fish calcified structures. Statistical methods were developed to extract annual signals from microchemistry data and to estimate age. For anglerfish and hake, this approach can be used to corroborate age estimates obtained using traditional methods and to test the growth assumptions underlying the stock assessments. The research was conducted under a contract with EU DG-MARE (EASME/EMFF/2016/1.3.2.7/SI2.762036), led by GMIT and involving partners from the Marine Institute (Ireland) DTU-Aqua (Denmark) IMEDEA (Spain), University of Bergen (Norway) and Ifremer (France).
