2005 Alaska Sablefish Longline Survey Report

November 20, 2005

On September 5, 2005, the, Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC), completed the twenty-sixth annual longline survey of Alaska sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) resources of the upper continental slope (Figure 1). This survey was designed to continue the time series (1979-94) of the Gulf of Alaska portion of the Japan-U.S. cooperative longline survey that was discontinued after 1994. NMFS has surveyed the Gulf of Alaska annually since 1987, the eastern Aleutian Islands biennially since 1996, and the eastern Bering Sea biennially since 1997. The Gulf of Alaska and eastern Bering sea were sampled in 2005.