Estuaries and coastal areas are subject to anthropogenic activities, as the largest harbours and economic activities are located along river banks and close to shore. Known to have a high habitat diversity, estuaries and coastal areas play a key role in the life cycle of many organisms, including marine fish. As such, these areas can serve as transport routes, foraging or nursery areas. In order to conserve these areas in a cost-efficient and sustainable way, a better understanding of the ecosystem functions and services is needed. The western Scheldt estuary and adjacent coastal area of Belgium are an important migration route and resident area for marine fish. We selected the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) as an economically important indicator species for marine fish species, to assess the importance of estuarine and coastal areas as a key habitat for this species. The results of this study will be useful for management measures for the conservation and restoration of the cod population.

This dataset was collected using infrastructure provided by VLIZ and INBO funded by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) as part of the Belgian contribution to LifeWatch. Data were exported from the European Tracking Network data portal (http://www.lifewatch.be/etn) developed by VLIZ using the ETN R package (https://inbo.github.io/etn/) developed by INBO. Field definitions can be found at https://inbo.github.io/etn/articles/etn_fields.html.