Growth of Baltic Sea young-of-the-year herring Clupea harengus is resource limited

We have determined the in situ food consumption rate of young-of-the-year (YOY, length 25 to 94 mm) Baltic Sea herring. This consumption increased with increasing food availability, which suggests that the growth rate of young Baltic herring is food Limited. This has been described previously for larval stages, but not for metamorphosed fish. The daily food consumption rate of YOY herring decreased from about 8 to 15% of body weight for small fish in the summer to 0.6 to 2 % for larger juveniles in late autumn.