Publications

This document provides an analysis of several issues pertaining to the Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program for fixed gear Pacific halibut and sablefish fisheries and the Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program for fisheries in and off of Alaska.

Beluga whales, Delphinapterus leucas, live year-round in arctic and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere (Hazard 1988). In Alaska waters, belugas spend summer in different regions of Alaska (Frost and Lowry 1990) to the extent that genetic differentiation has occurred within the species (O’Corry-Crow et al. 1997). These summering populations are found in Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay, the eastern Bering Sea, the eastern Chukchi Sea, and the eastern Beaufort Sea (Fig. 1). For Cook Inlet, both geographic and genetic isolation from the other beluga populations in Alaska has resulted in evident genetic drift (O’Corry-Crowe et al. 1997, 2010). While some of these Alaska populations are migratory, covering 1,000s of kilometers between summering and wintering regions, most Cook Inlet belugas remain year-round within the boundaries of the inlet.

Final Environmental Impact Statement for American Fisheries Act Amendments to the Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, Groundfish of the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crab, and Scallop Fishery off Alaska.

Categorical Exclusion based on the determination that alternatives addressing the role of government in the CDQ program, if implemented, would not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment.

British Petroleum Exploration, Alaska, proposes to develop and produce oil and gas from the Liberty oil field and has applied to the Minerals Management Service for approval of the Liberty Development and Production Plan.

NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-F/OPR-21

NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-OPR-20

Published Date: 2001

Published Date: 2001

On September 5, 2001, the, Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC), completed the twenty-third 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 2001.