Science & Data

The Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) crab fisheries managed under the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Fishery Management Plan (FMP) are currently prosecuted by an active fleet of 115 catcher vessels and two catcher processors, and landed and processed at 14 processing facilities throughout the region. Of the 10 crab stocks and 11 fisheries managed under the FMP1, eight fisheries are currently open to targeted fishing. The Bering Sea Tanner (BST) crab fisheries reopened for targeted fishing for the 2013/14 season 2 after being closed since the 2010/11 season. Pribilof Islands red and blue king, and Western Aleutian red king crab stocks are currently designated overfished, as detailed in the assessments for these stocks. The Saint Matthew blue king (SMB) crab fishery was closed for the 2013/14 season under the State of Alaska’s management strategy, and reopened for the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons.

This report describes field activities of the Aerial Surveys of Arctic Marine Mammals (ASAMM) project conducted during summer and fall (1 July – 29 October) 2014 and data analyses used to summarize field activities. Surveys were based in Barrow, Alaska, and Deadhorse, Alaska, and targeted the northeastern and southcentral Chukchi and western Beaufort seas, between 67°N and 72°N latitude and 140°W and 169°W longitude. Sea ice cover in the study area in 2014 was generally light compared with historical (pre-2007) sea ice cover. Sea ice remained in the northern half of the Chukchi Sea study area in early July. By late July, sea ice in the Chukchi Sea had receded to the northernmost regions of the study area. The majority of the nearshore area in the western Alaskan Beaufort Sea had ~1% sea ice in late July, although ~10-100% sea ice cover remained offshore between Camden Bay, Alaska, and Point Barrow, Alaska. Remnant sea ice persisted in the northeastern Chukchi Sea study area through late August, but the western Beaufort Sea study area was ice-free by late August. By 9 September, the entire study area was completely ice-free and remained ice-free until new ice started forming in mid-October. A total of 90 survey flights were conducted. The Barrow-based aerial survey team conducted surveys from 2 July through 29 October 2014 and the Deadhorse-based aerial survey team conducted surveys from 19 July through 10 October 2014. Total combined flight time was 440 hours, including 207 hours of transect survey effort. Over 110,000 km were flown, with 45,224 km of effort on transect. Surveys were conducted in the western Beaufort Sea in summer (mid-July through August) for the third consecutive year and in block 23 (southcentral Chukchi Sea) for the first time in several decades.

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 CrabV 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).

A Snack Before Bedtime?

The commercial groundfish fisheries off Alaska had a total catch of 2.2 million tons (t) in 2015 (including catch in federal and state waters) (Fig. 3.1 and Table 1). This amount was approximately equal to the catch in 2014. Groundfish accounted for 80% of Alaska’s 2015 total catch, which was slightly less than typical because of high Pacific salmon catch (Table 1A). Notable increases in catch were observed in the Alaska pollock (particularly in the Gulf of Alaska) and Atka mackerel fisheries, while catch in the flatfish species complex saw a significant decrease in 2015.

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 2015. This annual survey, conducted by the Southeast Coastal Monitoring (SECM) project, marks 19 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 15 to 32 PSU across inshore, strait, and coastal habitats for the four months. A total of 17,228 fish and squid, representing 25 taxa, were captured in 92 rope trawl hauls fished from June to August. Juvenile salmon comprised approximately 89% of the catch. Over all months and habitats, juvenile pink (O. gorbuscha), chum (O. keta), sockeye (O. nerka), and coho (O. kisutch) salmon occurred in 51-92% of the hauls, while juvenile Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) occurred in about 22% of the hauls. Abundance of juvenile salmon was low in 2015; peak CPUE occurred in June strait and coastal habitats. Coded-wire tags were recovered from 51 juvenile coho salmon and 5 juvenile and immature Chinook salmon, that primarily originated from hatchery and wild stocks in SEAK sampled in the strait habitat; an additional 18 adipose-clipped juvenile salmon without tags were present. The only non-Alaskan stocks were recovered off Icy Point, a juvenile Chinook salmon from the Willamette River, OR and a juvenile coho salmon from the Satsop River, Washington. Of the juvenile salmon examined for otolith marks, Alaska enhanced stocks comprised 56% of the juvenile chum (373 of 663) and 38% of the juvenile sockeye salmon (202 of 532). Of the 380 potential predators of juvenile salmon, predation on juvenile salmon was not observed in the six 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 in marine ecosystems during a period of rapid climate change.

Arrowtooth Flounder, A Voracious Predator!

This database contains counts of adult and juvenile (non-pup) Steller sea lions on rookeries and haulouts in Alaska made between 1904 and 2015. Non-pup counts have been conducted throughout the year. Breeding season (June-mid July) non-pup counts are used for population trend analysis, while counts at other times are used for analyses of distribution and for other purposes. Non-pups are counted from the ground (by walking along the rookery), from cliff-side overlooks, and from aerial imagery (oblique and vertical orientation). Non-pup counts represent only a fraction of the total number of animals that may use a site. Sea lions haulout less frequently in winter than in summer; thus, winter counts represent a smaller fraction of the total population than summer counts.

This database contains counts of Steller sea lion pups on rookeries in Alaska made between 1961 and 2015. Pup counts are conducted in late June-July. Pups are counted from the ground (by walking along the rookery), from cliff-side overlooks, and from aerial images (oblique and vertical orientation). Pup counts conducted in late June-mid July are considered to represent a complete census of pups produced at each site during the year.

Watching an ecosystem transform firsthand.