Science & Data

The National Standard Guidelines for Fishery Management Plans published by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) require that a stock assessment and fishery evaluation (SAFE) report be prepared and reviewed annually for each fishery management plan (FMP). The SAFE report summarizes the best available scientific information concerning the past, present, and possible future condition of the stocks, marine ecosystems, and fisheries that are managed under Federal regulation. It provides information to the Councils for determining annual harvest levels from each stock, documenting significant trends or changes in the resource, marine ecosystems, and fishery over time, and assessing the relative success of existing state and Federal fishery management programs. For the FMP for the Groundfish Fishery of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Area, the SAFE report is published in three sections: a “Stock Assessment” section, which comprises the bulk of this document, and “Economic Status of Groundfish Fisheries off Alaska” and “Ecosystem Considerations” sections, which are bound separately.

This report describes field activities and data analyses for the Aerial Surveys of Arctic Marine Mammals (ASAMM) project conducted during summer and fall (1 July – 28 October) 2013. Surveys were based in Barrow and Deadhorse, Alaska, and targeted the northeastern Chukchi and western Beaufort seas, between 68°N and 72N, 140°W and 169°W.

Physically, a paper smooth sheet with muslin backing was the final product of a hydrographic survey (Hawley 1931). According to the Hydrographic Manual published by the National Ocean Service (NOS), a smooth sheet "is ultimately archived as the official permanent record of the survey and is the principal source and authority for charted hydrographic data" (p. 1-5, Umbach 1981). The concept of creating a smooth sheet rather than a data file of the soundings dates back to 1837 (for the United States). Hydrographers on surveying vessels would collect soundings with lead lines while recording visually determined sextant angles to shore-based navigation stations (Hawley 1931), rather than recording positions with latitudes and longitudes. Thus, the angles needed to be translated into latitude and longitude coordinates. As part of this process, the soundings were drawn on a smooth sheet, along with the shoreline, geographic features (e.g., kelp beds, rocky reefs, islets, rocks), seafloor substrates (e.g., gravel, sand, mud), and the navigational signals, in order to provide a visual record of the hydrographic survey, which could be annotated as new information became available. After completion of several smooth sheets in an area, the information from the smooth sheets was used to create or update navigational charts, which typically cover a larger area and thus are drawn at a smaller scale. Though more detailed than navigational charts, smooth sheets are not intended for use in navigation. Instead the smooth sheets were used as internal documents by the hydrographic agency. Only after they were scanned, digitized, and posted to National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC: (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/) (Wong et al. 2007) did they become widely used by non-hydrographers.

Logbook summary reports for the 2012 calendar year.

The Marine Mammal Laboratory (MML) conducted aerial and ship-based surveys to count Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) adults, juveniles, and pups on land in Alaska in June to July 2013.

The BSAI Crab Economic Status Report summarizes available economic information about the commercial crab fisheries managed under the Fishery Management Plan for Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crab, with particular attention to the subset of fisheries included in the Crab Rationalization program. 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; effort; 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 domestic groundfish fishery off Alaska is an important segment of the U.S. fishing industry. With a total catch of 2.12 million metric tons (t), a retained catch of 2.05 million t, and an ex-vessel value of $1,051 million in 2012, it accounted for 47.4% of the weight and 19.9% of the ex-vessel value of total U.S. domestic landings as reported in Fisheries of the United States, 2011 (FUS 2012 was not yet available at the time of this draft). The value of the 2012 groundfish catch after primary processing was $2,540 million (F.O.B. Alaska).

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 2012. This annual survey, conducted by the Southeast Coastal Monitoring (SECM) project, marks 16 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. Thirteen 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 typically collected during daylight at each station using a surface rope trawl, Norpac and bongo nets, a water sampler, and a conductivity-temperature-depth profiler. Surface (3-m) temperatures and salinities ranged from approximately 7 to 14 ºC and 16 to 32 PSU across inshore, strait, and coastal habitats for the four months. A total of 46,144 fish and squid, representing 29 taxa, were captured in 96 rope trawl hauls fished from June to August. Juvenile salmon comprised approximately 96% of the total fish catch. Juvenile pink (O. gorbuscha), chum (O. keta), sockeye (O. nerka), and coho (O. kisutch) salmon occurred in 73-84% of the hauls by month and habitat, while juvenile Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) occurred in 20% of the hauls. Abundance of juvenile salmon was high in 2012; peak CPUE occurred in July in strait habitat and in August in coastal habitat. Coded-wire tags were recovered from 27 coho salmon and 6 Chinook salmon, mainly including hatchery and wild stocks originating in SEAK and captured in strait habitat; an additional 18 adipose-clipped individuals without tags (presumably originating from the Pacific Northwest) were recovered mainly in coastal habitat. Alaska enhanced stocks comprised 71%, 30%, and 9% of chum, sockeye, and coho salmon, respectively. Predation on juvenile salmon was observed in 3 of 9 fish species examined. The longterm 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. Longterm 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.

The northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) population in the Pribilof Islands Archipelago (on St. Paul and St. George Islands, Figs. 1-3) makes up approximately 50% of the world population. Smaller breeding colonies are located on the Kuril and Commander Islands in Russia, Bogoslof Island (Figs. 1 and 4) in the southeastern Bering Sea, and San Miguel Island (Fig. 5) off California. The rookeries at San Miguel and Bogoslof Islands probably originated in the late 1950s (DeLong 1982) and 1980 (Lloyd et al. 1981), respectively.

The annual stock assessment and fishery evaluation (SAFE) report is a requirement of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's Fishery Management Plan for Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs (FMP), and is a federal requirement [50 CFR Section 602.12(e)]. The SAFE report summarizes the current biological and economic status of fisheries, total allowable catch (TAC) or Guideline Harvest Level (GHL), and analytical information used for management decisions.