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.
Through 2010, octopuses were managed as part of the BSAI “other species” complex, along with sharks, skates, and sculpins. Historically, catches of the other species complex were well below TAC and retention of other species was small.
In 2005, Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) rockfish were moved to a biennial assessment schedule with full assessments in even years to coincide with the frequency of trawl surveys in the Aleutian Islands (AI) and the eastern Bering Sea (EBS) slope.
Northern rock sole (Lepidopsetta polyxystra n. sp.) are distributed primarily on the eastern Bering Sea continental shelf and in much lesser amounts in the Aleutian Islands region. Two species of rock sole are known to occur in the North Pacific Ocean.
This is a three species stock assessment for walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus), Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) and arrowtooth flounder (Atheresthes stomias), from the Eastern Bering Sea, Alaska.
Kamchatka flounder is a relatively large flatfish which is distributed from Northern Japan through the Sea of Okhotsk to the Western Bering Sea north to Anadyr Gulf and east to the eastern Bering Sea shelf and south of the Alaska Peninsula.
Greenland turbot (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) is a Pleuronectidae (right eyed) flatfish that has a circumpolar distribution inhabiting the North Atlantic, Arctic and North Pacific Oceans.