NOAA Fisheries News Releases
NEWS RELEASE
August 19, 2009
Sheela McLean, Public Affairs
(907) 586-7032
Researchers complete 2009 eastern Bering Sea fish and crab stock surveys
Researchers from NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center have finished their time at sea gathering another year’s data on Bering Sea walleye pollock, groundfish and crab stocks.
Researchers are now carefully validating the 2009 data, conducting an exhaustive review for quality control to prepare the data for standardized abundance estimates. The survey data are then added to other data needed for a complete stock assessment.
The 2009 survey results will be presented at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council Joint Groundfish Plan Team meeting, September 15-18, and Crab Plan Team meeting September 14-16, 2009. North Pacific Groundfish stock assessment and fishery evaluation reports will be presented at the November Groundfish Plan Team meeting November 15-18, 2009. Managers will set the 2010 total allowable catch levels at the December North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting.
Researchers use bottom trawls to survey groundfish (including pollock) and crab plus an acoustic-trawl survey for pelagic walleye pollock.
The bottom trawl survey of the eastern Bering Sea continental shelf has taken place annually since 1971. This year the fishing vessels Aldebaran and Arcturus, chartered from May 28 to August 2, bottom trawled at 376 stations over a survey area of 144,600 square nautical miles. Researchers processed and recorded the data from each trawl catch by identifying, sorting, and weighing all the different crab and groundfish species and then measuring samples of each species.
Supplementary biological and oceanographic data collected on the bottom trawl survey is also collected to improve understanding of life history of the groundfish and crab species and the ecological and physical factors affecting their distribution and abundance.
Researchers ran the acoustic-trawl survey of walleye pollock in the Bering Sea between June 7 and August 7 from the NOAA ship Oscar Dyson. The 2009 acoustic trawl survey, the latest in a series that began in 1979, covered the area from Bristol Bay to the western Bering Sea shelf region extending into the Russian Exclusive Economic Zone. The survey design consisted of 31 north-south transects spaced 20 nautical miles apart covering the waters from Port Moller, Alaska across the Bering Sea shelf to near Cape Navarin, Russia, which represents an area of about 102,708 square nautical miles. In addition, trawl samples were collected to classify the observed acoustic backscatter layers to species and size composition and to collect specimens of walleye pollock.
NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources. Visit www.noaa.gov. To learn more about NOAA Fisheries in Alaska, visit alaskafisheries.noaa.gov or: www.afsc.noaa.gov.