The scheduled frequency for some stock assessments was recently changed in response to the National Stock Assessment Prioritization effort. In previous years, all Gulf of Alaska rockfish stocks were assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule.
Sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) inhabit the northeastern Pacific Ocean from northern Mexico to the Gulf of Alaska, westward to the Aleutian Islands, and into the Bering Sea.
Yellowfin Sole (Limanda aspera) is one of the most abundant flatfish species in the eastern Bering Sea and currently is the target of the largest flatfish fishery in the world.
The Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) skate complex is managed in aggregate, with a single set of harvest specifications applied to the entire complex. However, to generate the harvest recommendations the stock is divided into two units.
Shortraker rockfish (Sebastes borealis) are distributed along the continental slope in the north Pacific from Point Conception in southern California to Japan, and are commonly found between eastern Kamchatka and British Columbia.
The shark complex (Pacific sleeper shark, spiny dogfish, salmon shark, and other/unidentified sharks) in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands is assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule. In even years we present a full stock assessment.
Walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) are broadly distributed throughout the North Pacific with the largest concentrations found in the Eastern Bering Sea.
Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) ranges across the northern Pacific Ocean from California, northward to the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Bering Sea north to Norton Sound; and southward along the Asian coast to the northern Yellow Sea.
The Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands other flatfish complex has typically included those flatfish besides northern rock sole, yellowfin sole, arrowtooth flounder, Kamchatka flounder and Greenland turbot.