Groundfish Assessment Program
The Groundfish Assessment Program is responsible for planning, executing, analyzing, and
reporting results from surveys to establish time series estimates of the distribution and
abundance of Alaska groundfish resources in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Aleutian Islands.
The program also investigates biological processes and interactions with the environment to
estimate growth, mortality, and recruitment to improve the precision and accuracy of forecasting
stock dynamics. Impacts of bottom trawls on the seafloor and the description of bottom type are also
being studied in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.
The Groundfish Assessment Program in cooperation with the RACE
Shellfish Assessment Program annually conducts a bottom trawl
assessment survey for groundfish and king and Tanner crabs in the eastern Bering sea. This survey was initiated
in 1971 and has been conducted annually since 1979. Annual surveys of sablefish abundance in the Bering
Sea/Aleutian Islands region and Gulf of Alaska have been conducted since 1979 in cooperation with the
AFSCs Auke Bay Laboratory. Major
triennial surveys have been conducted for groundfish resources in the Aleutian Islands region, and in portions
of the eastern Bering Sea not included in the annual groundfish/crab survey
since 1977. Standard trawls and longlines have been used throughout these time series surveys. Special purpose
surveys and studies have been conducted to improve understanding of biological processes, interaction with the
environment, and factors affecting the precision and accuracy of estimates of abundance and population forecasts.
Data derived from Groundfish surveys are documented
in scientific reports and are incorporated into stock assessment advice to
the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the
North Pacific Fishery Management Council,
international fishery management organizations, the fishing industry, and the general public.
*Featured Items*
Recent Poster Presentations, Publications, Reports & Activities
- WEBER, T. C., C. ROOPER, J. BUTLER, D. JONES, and C. WILSON.
2013. Seabed classification for trawlability determined with a multibeam echosounder on Snakehead Bank in the Gulf of Alaska. Fish. Bull., U.S. 111:68-77. (.pdf, 1.43 MB) Online.
- JENSEN, P. C., M. K. PURCELL, J. F. MORADO, and G. L. ECKERT.
2012. Development of a real-time PCR assay for detection of planktonic red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus (Tilesius 1815)) larvae. J. Shellfish Res. 31:917-924.
- CHOI, J. H., and D. A. SOMERTON.
2012. Efficiency of the Korean bottom survey trawl for snow crab Chionoecetes opilio. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 15(4):1-7.
- WILLIAMS, K., C. ROOPER, and J. HARMS (editors).
2012. Report of the National Marine Fisheries Service Automated Image Processing Workshop. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-F/SPO-121, 48 p.
- An Annotated Checklist of the Marine Macroinvertebrates of Alaska
By: DAVID T. DRUMM, JAMES W. ORR
Conference: Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2013
(2013 poster, .pdf, 1.3 MB) Online.
- Gulf of Alaska Benthic Habitat Research
By: S. KALEI SHOTWELL, MARK ZIMMERMANN, JANE A. REID, NADINE GOLDEN
Conference: Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2012
(2012 poster, .pdf, 11.2 MB) Online.
See the poster and publications databases for additional listings.
To view and print these documents, you must install
Adobe Reader freeware. Adobe also offers
free tools for the visually disabled.
|
