Obsolete - AFSC/RACE/EcoFOCI: 2011 Gulf of Alaska fall juvenile fish Cruise DY11-06/7DY11

The cruise began when the ship departed Dutch Harbor on October 1, 2011 at 1500 ADT. Sampling commenced at collection site 1E, which corresponds to Station 1. Station number reflects the order of site occupation (see Cruise Report Table 1, Figures 1 and 2). All but one of the Semidi grid sites were successfully occupied by 10 October. Site 2B was not occupied successfully because the midwater trawl was torn by bottom contact and we chose to forgo sampling there in favor of running to the next station while the deck crew removed the tangled trawl from the net reel. Unfortunately, removing the net took about 12 hrs because the net became tangled on the reel. Only 17 of the 32 Kodiak grid sites were successfully occupied (Table 1). This was largely due to an overly ambitious cruise plan. Overall, samples were successfully collected to address cruise objectives (no. sites, gear type): time series (n=26 sites, midwater Stauffer trawl), resource selection models (RSM, n=35 sites, 3-m plumb staff beam trawl), potential prey (n=9 sites, 60-cm bongo, epibenthic sled, Van Veen grab infauna), and juvenile fish production (relevant data were collected at all sites). At nine sites, including Station 39, the sea floor was too rough to sample on bottom so only a midwater sample was collected. This additional sampling was to supplement collections made for the GOA-Integrated Ecosystem Research Program (RHeintz, see above Samples Collected) and for a study of otolith element composition. Sampling concluded after three unsuccessful attempts to obtain a sediment composition sample at Site 27G (Station 56) at approximately 03:25 on 14 October 2011.

The primary objectives were to conduct fieldwork to 1) extend time series of age-0 walleye pollock abundance off east Kodiak Island and in the Semidi Bank vicinity, and 2) test the utility of habitat models for predicting site-specific presence of flatfish over the continental shelf. Sampling occurred at pre-determined locations to collect age-0 walleye pollock and juvenile flatfishes. Secondary objectives were to 1) examine the hypothesis that benthic and neritic fishes in the coastal Gulf of Alaska (GOA) utilize different geographic areas for production of juveniles, and 2) collect samples of the potential prey taxa of these fishes. This work was needed to evaluate age-0 walleye pollock abundance as a recruitment predictor, to determine if juvenile flatfish habitat includes extensive parts of the continental shelf as predicted or is restricted to much smaller areas near shore, and to elucidate habitat differences among juvenile fishes to better understand how external forces might affect the taxonomic composition of fishery resources within the GOA ecosystem. An additional Program objective was the recovery of two moorings and deployment of one.

Loaded by batch 3762, 12-05-2012 12:31

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User must read and fully comprehend the metadata prior to use. Applications or inferences derived from the data should be carefully considered for accuracy. Data will reside at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. Acknowledgement of NOAA/NMFS/AFSC, as the source from which these data were obtained in any publications and/or other representations of these, data is suggested.

None

None

See InPort entries 26275, 26373 and 26570.

human examination of samples required.

local and off site backups

See InPort entries 26275, 26373 and 26570.