Federal fisheries conducted in waters off Alaska are some of the largest in the world. In 2013, almost 2.4 million metric tons (t) of fish and shellfish were commercially harvested in waters off Alaska, which was just over half of the total catch in U.S. waters (NMFS 2013a). Many of these fisheries are governed by the Magnuson-Steven Fishery Management and Conservation Act (MSA), which, among other things, requires establishing fishery management plans (FMPs) that are consistent with the MSA and its National Standards. The management of Federal groundfish fisheries off Alaska is governed under FMPs that are specific to the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) and Gulf of Alaska (GOA) regions (Fig. 1). The catch of FMP species is monitored using landing and production information that is reported by the commercial fishing industry and at-sea information collected from an extensive at-sea observer program. These data sources are integrated into a NMFS application called the Alaska Catch Accounting System (the CAS) and used to produce the total catch estimates referenced in the FMPs.
