Both 3NO cod and 3LNO plaice have exhibited substantial variation in RPS (Fig. 3). The timing of this variation and the association between RPS and SSB was not the same for the two populations although both stocks had extended periods when RPS was below average. There was a 24-year period of low RPS from 1981 to 2004 for cod and 11- and 10-year periods of low RPS for plaice from 1961 to 1971 and 1979 to 1988 respectively. During Warm_1 both SSB and RPS were high for cod while SSB was high and RPS low for plaice (Table 1). During Cold_1, RPS started below average for cod and then increased rapidly as SSB declined to very low levels, with a resulting average RPS for the period that was above the long term average. For plaice, RPS was above average during Cold_1, while SSB was about average, although as for cod, RPS increased over the time period while SSB declined. During Cold_2, SSB and RPS were low for cod with low SSB and high RPS for plaice. In recent years when the NAO was again low and conditions warm (Warm_2), there has been mainly below average RPS at low SSB for both American plaice and cod. Over all average RPS was much higher for plaice than for cod