AFSC/RACE/GAP/Conrath: Delayed discard mortality of the North Pacific giant octopus

The majority of octopus bycatch occurs in Pacific cod pot fisheries and recent data collected by North Pacific Groundfish Observers indicate that immediate mortality of octopus caught in these fisheries is very small. The objectives of the proposed research were to examine the delayed mortality of E. dofleini captured in Pacific cod pot fisheries. These data are necessary to make sound management decisions for octopus based on appropriate scientific information. This data set contains observations and measurements on the condition, weight, and survivorship of North Pacific giant octopus that were caught as bycatch in commercial fishing operations utilizing pot gear to target Pacific cod. These octopus were captured during commercial fishing operations that occurred during three fishing seasons from January 2014 through February 2015. These commercial fishing operations occurred in the central Gulf of Alaska in either Shelikof Strait or Marmot Bay. Data collected included information on octopus condition, size, sex, and injury presence. Other data collected included the location of capture, water depth, octopus air exposure time, water temperature, and gear soak time. These octopus were transported to the Kodiak sea water facility and held for a period of several months. During this period data were collected on condition, injury presence, and survivorship at 21 days. After this period octopus were held for an additional five to six weeks to assess growth within the laboratory. Octopus were fed to satiation every 72 hours during this period. Food was weighed prior to feeding and remaining food was weighed after a four hour period. The final food weight was corrected for water soaking time. Octopus were weighed once per week during this period of time. Several metrics of octopus feeding and growth were measured after this period including specific growth rate, absolute growth rate, absolute feeding rate, specific feeding rate, feeding efficiency, and daily growth rate.

These data are necessary to make sound management decisions for octopus based on appropriate scientific information.

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The user is responsible for the results of any application of this data for other than its intended purpose. NOAA denies liability if the data are misused.

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There are no legal restrictions on access to the data. They reside in public domain and can be freely distributed.

User must read and fully comprehend the metadata prior to use. Applications or inferences derived from the data should be carefully considered for accuracy. 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.

One octopus experienced mortality due to equipment failure at the laboratory. This octopus is denoted in the database with a comment in the final condition section of the mortality table. All other octopus completed the discard mortality study. Additional octopus that were not deemed healthy at the onset of the growth study were not included within this study

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Parameters associated with capture events (dates, air temperature, water temperature, etc.) were collected by a biological technician. Air temperature was measured using standard thermometers and water temperatures were collected using temperature tid-bits that were attached to pot gear. All equipment utilized was in appropriate working order during these collections. All biological data collected in the laboratory (weight, food weight, etc.) were measured using laboratory bench top scales which were calibrated regularly to minimize measurement error.