"Pacific Ocean Perch"

Pacific ocean perch in the Gulf of Alaska are assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule to coincide with the availability of new survey data.

In 2005, BSAI rockfish were moved to a biennial assessment schedule with full assessments in even years to coincide with the occurrence of trawl surveys in the Aleutian Islands (AI) and the eastern Bering Sea (EBS) slope.

Rockfish are assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule to coincide with the availability of new survey data. For Gulf of Alaska rockfish in alternate (even) years we present an executive summary to recommend harvest levels for the next two years. Please refer to last year’s full stock assessment report for further information regarding the assessment model. A full stock assessment document with updated assessment and projection model results will be presented in next year’s SAFE report.

Pacific ocean perch (POP, Sebastes alutus) inhabit the outer continental shelf and upper slope regions of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. Pacific ocean perch were occasionally managed within a species complex with four other associated rockfish species (northern rockfish, S. polyspinis; rougheye rockfish, S. aleutianus; shortraker rockfish, S. borealis; and sharpchin rockfish, S. zacentrus) in the eastern Bering Sea (EBS) and Aleutian Islands (AI) subareas from 1979 to 1990. Known as the POP complex, these five species were managed as a single entity with a single TAC (total allowable catch) for each of these two areas. In 1991, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council separated POP from the other red rockfish in order to provide protection from possible overfishing. Of the five species in the former POP complex, S. alutus has historically been the most abundant rockfish in this region and has contributed most to the commercial rockfish catch.

Gulf of Alaska (GOA) rockfish are assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule to coincide with new survey data. We use a separable age-structured model as the primary assessment tool for GOA Pacific ocean perch.

Alaska Fisheries Science Center conducts a variety of research on Pacific ocean perch, which seem to be most abundant in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands.

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 reports are intended to summarize the best available scientific information concerning the past, present, and possible future condition of the stocks and fisheries under federal management. The FMPs for the groundfish fisheries managed by the Council require that drafts of the SAFE reports be produced each year in time for the December North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) meetings.

The Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (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” (i.e., the “Economic SAFE report”) and “Ecosystem Considerations” sections, which are bound separately.

Measured 20,000 fish and collected 1,100 otoliths over seven weeks at sea.

Working in western reaches of US and possibly discovered a new fish species.