Alternative catch monitoring of Alaskan groundfish (NPRB 1017).

These data arise from a field study of groundfish catch monitoring in Kodiak, AK trawl fisheries. Two monitoring components were included in the study: 1) at-sea sampling methods used by observers to sample species composition of catch and 2) shore-side sampling of delivered catch by observers to validate landings species composition reports. The at-sea portion of the study consisted of a side-by-side comparison (two observers) of a proposed new sampling method and the standard sampling method. Observer data were recorded at-sea on paper and transferred to an Oracle database. The shoreside component of this study consisted of observer species composition sampling in plants for later comparison with landings data. The shore-side data were collected by observers in processing plants, recorded on paper and transferred to an Oracle database. Data collection started in April 2011 and continued through August 2011. Third party landings data (NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Regional Office, Sustainable Fisheries Division) that were used in the analysis are stored in an oracle database. Data for both project components (at-sea and shoreside) were collected during normal fishing activities onboard commercial trawl catcher vessels and during normal processing activities in shore-based processing plants.

NPRB Research Project: This project investigated whether proposed changes to how observer data are collected on catcher vessels that deliver to shoreside processors result in greater accuracy and precision of catch estimates. The first component of the project compared standard and alternative methods of sampling catch that will be discarded at-sea (bycatch component), while the second component examined the effectiveness of using observer data to verify the accuracy of species identification on industry reports of retained catch (retained catch component).

Specifically, the objectives of this project were to test (1) whether alternative at-sea sampling methods are (a) feasible aboard small catcher vessels in Alaska, and (b) result in lower variance in estimates of discard relative to current methods, and (2) test whether the accuracy of retained catch information can be improved through monitoring and verification of species identification by observers.

Faunce, C. H., J. A. Cahalan, J. Bonney, R. Swanson. 2013. Alternative catch monitoring of Alaskan groundfish. North Pacific Reseach Board Final Report Project 1017.