Science & Data

This file contains counts from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center's database of non-pup (adult and juvenile) Steller sea lions in Alaska.

A whale ethogram — a comprehensive description and definition of behavioral states and events exhibited by the endangered stock of Cook Inlet beluga whales.

This study using remote video monitoring of by the Alaska SeaLife Center added finer-scale information about habitat use and behavior to the existing body of knowledge about Cook Inlet belugas.

An examination into Alaska beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) stomachs and diet between 1954 and 2012.

Areas closed to fishing to protect Steller sea lions and conserve prey. Charts and offline Carry Maps from ArcGIS map documents.

Logbook summary reports for the 2013 calendar year.

This report presents information on economic activity in commercial crab fisheries currently managed under the Federal Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Bering Sea and Aleutian and Islands King and Tanner Crab (BSAI crab), with attention to the subset of fisheries included in the Crab Rationalization (CR) Program. Statistics on harvesting and processing activity; e↵ort; revenue; labor employment and compensation; operational costs; and quota ownership, usage and disposition among participants in the fisheries are provided. Additionally, this report provides a summary of BSAI crab-related research being undertaken by the Economic and Social Sciences Research Program (ESSRP) at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC).

The commercial groundfish fishery off Alaska catch totaled 2.3 million tons (t) in 2014 (including catch in federal and state waters). This amount was up 4.2% from 2013, and was roughly five times larger than the combined catch of Alaska’s other commercial domestic species (Fig. 1 and Table 1). Groundfish accounted for 85% of Alaska’s 2014 total catch, which was slightly greater than typical because of lower Pacific salmon catch (Table 1A), reduced halibut catches (Table H1A) and increased Gulf of Alaska groundfish harvest. In addition, the groundfish fishery off Alaska is an important segment of the U.S. fishing industry. In 2013, it accounted for 48% of the weight of total U.S. domestic landings (Fisheries of the United States, 2013).

Juvenile Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), ecologically-related species, and associated biophysical data were collected from the marine waters of the northern region of southeastern Alaska (SEAK) in 2014. This annual survey, conducted by the Southeast Coastal Monitoring (SECM) project, marks 18 consecutive years of systematically monitoring how juvenile salmon utilize marine ecosystems during a period of climate change. The survey was implemented to identify the relationships between year-class strength of juvenile salmon and biophysical parameters that influence their habitat use, marine growth, prey fields, predation, and stock interactions. Up to 13 stations were sampled monthly in epipelagic waters from May to August (total of 23 sampling days). Fish, zooplankton, surface water samples, and physical profile data were collected during daylight at each station using a surface rope trawl, bongo nets, a water sampler, and a conductivity-temperature-depth profiler. Surface (3-m) temperatures and salinities ranged from approximately 8 to 15 ºC and 18 to 32 PSU across inshore, strait, and coastal habitats for the four months. A total of 79,524 fish and squid, representing 29 taxa, were captured in 97 rope trawl hauls fished from June to August. Juvenile salmon comprised approximately 13% of the total fish. Juvenile pink (O. gorbuscha), chum (O. keta), sockeye (O. nerka), and coho (O. kisutch) salmon occurred in 50-92% of the hauls by month and habitat, while juvenile Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) occurred in about 20% of the hauls. Abundance of juvenile salmon was high in 2014; peak CPUE occurred in July in strait and coastal habitats. Coded-wire tags were recovered from 35 coho salmon and 5 Chinook salmon, that primarily originated from hatchery and wild stocks in SEAK sampled in the strait habitat; an additional 6 adipose-clipped individuals without tags (presumably originating from the Pacific Northwest) were recovered mainly in coastal habitat, where a non-Alaskan juvenile coho and Chinook were recovered (both Oregon origin). Of the juvenile salmon examined for otolith marks, Alaska enhanced stocks comprised 64% of the juvenile chum and 32% of the juvenile sockeye salmon. Of the 147 potential predators of juvenile salmon, predation on juvenile salmon was observed in 2 of 11 fish species examined. The long term seasonal time series of SECM juvenile salmon stock assessment and biophysical data is used in conjunction with basin-scale ecosystem metrics to annually forecast pink salmon harvest in SEAK. Long term seasonal monitoring of key stocks of juvenile salmon and associated ecologically-related species, including fish predators and prey, permits researchers to understand how growth, abundance, and interactions affect year-class strength of salmon during climate change in marine ecosystems.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) on right whale calving grounds by documenting the occurrence of right whale call detections on 2 types of acoustic instruments deployed in the South Atlantic.