AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
AFSC/ABL: Intra-annual growth in body weight of chum salmon captured incidentally in the Bering Sea commercial fishery for walleye pollock

Ecosystem-based fisheries management requires the development of physical and biological time series that index ocean productivity for stock assessment and recruitment forecasts for commercially important species. Since recruitment in marine fish is related to ocean condition, we developed proxies for ocean conditions based on sea surface temperature and biometric measurements of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) captured in the walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) fishery in the eastern Bering Sea in three periods (July 16-30, September 1-15, and September 16-30). The main purpose of this paper was to evaluate Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) growth as a possible indicator of ocean conditions that, in turn, may affect age-1 pollock recruitment. Marine growth rates of Pacific salmon are the result of a complex interplay of physical, biological, and population-based factors that fish experience as they range through oceanic habitats. These growth rates can therefore be viewed as indicators of recent ocean productivity. Thus, our hypothesis is that estimated intra-annual growth in body weight of immature and maturing age-4 male and female chum salmon may be used as a biological indicator of variations in rearing conditions also experienced by age 0 walleye pollock; consequently, they may be used to predict the recruitment to age-1 in walleye pollock. Summer SSTs and chum salmon growth at the end of July and September explained the largest amount of variability in walleye pollock recruitment indicating that physical and biological indices of ocean productivity can index fish recruitment.

Tags: alaska, alaska fisheries science center, auke bay laboratories, bering sea, bycatch, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, growth, national marine fisheries service, noaa, u.s. department of commerce
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
AFSC/RACE/MACE: Results of 2008 pollock acoustic trawl survey Shelikof DY0803

Scientists from the Midwater Assessment and Conservation Engineering (MACE) Program of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center's (AFSC) Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE) Division routinely conduct echo integration-trawl (EIT) stock assessment surveys in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) during late winter and early spring to estimate the distribution and abundance of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma). Most of these efforts have been focused on the Shelikof Strait area, which has been surveyed annually since 1980, except in 1982 and 1999. Surveys were also conducted in the Shumagin Islands area in 1994-96, 2001-03, and 2005-07 and along the GOA continental shelf break east of Chirikof Island to Barnabas Trench in 2002-07. This report presents the distribution and abundance of walleye pollock for surveys conducted in the GOA during February and March 2008.

Tags: 000 m depth, abundance, acoustics, afsc/race/mace: pollock acoustic/trawl survey spawning annual shelikof, alaska, alaska fisheries science center, central gulf of alaska, distribution, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, echo integration-trawl (eit), gulf of alaska, national marine fisheries service, noaa, sanak trough, semidi islands, shelf break from barnabas trough to middleton island, shelf break from chirikof island to barnabas trough, shelikof strait, shumagin islands, shumagin islands transects: between 75-220m depth, stock assessment, survey, the goa shelf break survey transects: between 200 and 1, the sanak trough survey transects: between 50-165m depth, the shelikof strait sea valley survey transects: between 100-340m depth, theragra chalcogramma, u.s. department of commerce, walleye pollock, western gulf of alaska, winter survey
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
AFSC/ABL: Chinook allozyme baseline

Allozyme variation was used to examine population genetic structure of adult chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, collected between 1988 and 1993 from 22 spawning locations in Southeast Alaska and northern British Columbia. Thirty-five loci and two pairs of isoloci were variable, and of these, 25 loci and one pair of isoloci expressed the most abundant allele with a frequency of less than or equal to 0.95 in at least one collection.  Aneighbor-joining (NJ) tree of genetic distances defined five regional groups: (1) King Salmon River (the only island collection), which has large allelic frequency differences from other populations in this study; (2) heterogeneous coastal populations from southern southeast Alaska; (3) transmountain collections from the Taku and Stikine Rivers on the eastern side of the coastal mountain range; (4) Chilkat River in northern Southeast Alaska; and (5) northern coastal Southeast Alaska, which consists of the Situk River and the Klukshu River, a tributary of the Alsek River. A second NJ tree that included collections from the Yukon River and British Columbia did not reveal any strong genetic similarity between Southeast Alaska and the Yukon River. The data suggest that Southeast Alaska may have been colonized from both northern and southern refugia following the last glaciation b?? a period of sufficient time to allow for isolation by distance to occur.

Tags: alaska, alaska fisheries science center, allozyme, auke bay laboratories, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, national marine fisheries service, noaa, postglacial colonization, stock identification, u.s. department of commerce
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
AFSC/RACE/MACE: Results of 2024 acoustic trawl survey Gulf of Alaska DY2401

Shumagin Islands, Sanak, Morzhovoi, Pavlof

Tags: acoustics, afsc/race/mace: pollock acoustic/trawl survey spawning annual shumagins, alaska, alaska fisheries science center, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, national marine fisheries service, noaa, pollock, u.s. department of commerce
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
AFSC/ABL: Juvenile rockfish DNA species identification

Many pelagic juvenile rockfish (Sebastes) were collected in juvenile salmonid surveys in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) from 1998 to 2002.  Often species identification of rockfish is difficult or impossible at this stage of development (20 to 40 mm), and the juveniles of only a few species indigenous to Alaska waters have been described.  These collections are samples of the first large aggregations observed in GOA waters and provided an opportunity to document the occurrence of several species of rockfish.  Using mtDNA markers developed to identify rockfish species, we were able to identify unequivocally four species (Sebastes alutus, S. aleutianus, S. borealis, S. reedi) from subsamples of the collections.  Other individuals were assigned to groups of two or three species.  Using morphological data alone, we identified S. boreaslis, S. crameri, and S. reedi.  The other species were initially indistinguishable by their morphology from S. alutus.  The combined genetic and morphological data successfully resolved the other species as S. entomelas and probably s. ciliatus/variabilis, although S. polyspinis cannot be ruled out.  In addition to documenting the presence of these species in the GOA, the results provide useful information for identifying pelagic juvenile rockfishes in surveys targeting this early life history stage.

Tags: alaska, alaska fisheries science center, auke bay laboratories, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, gulf of alaska, national marine fisheries service, noaa, u.s. department of commerce
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
AFSC/ABL: Chum salmon bycatch genetic stock identification 1994-1995 Bering Sea

In some years, the Bering Sea trawl fishery incidentally harvests (bycatch) large numbers of chum salmon.  Because chum salmon were declining in some western Alaska areas, the origins of the chum salmon bycatch were important.  Tagging studies have shown that chum salmon originating in Asia and North America migrate through the eastern Bering Sea.  Genetic stock identification (GSI), a method of estimating stock composition in mixed-stock fisheries, has helped in evaluating stock contributions to salmon fisheries on the western coast of North America.  Through cooperative efforts between state and federal agencies, a comprehensive genetic baseline for Pacific Rim chum salmon stocks has been developed, which enables GSI in fisheries such as the Bering Sea trawl fishery.
In 1994, the National Marine Fisheries Service, Auke Bay Laboratory, initiated a feasibility study of GSI in determining the origins of the chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea trawl fishery.  Sampling in 1995 was intensified and resulted in samples covering the entire fishing season, representing nearly 11% of the total chum salmon bycatch. 
Estimates for our 1994 fishery samples over three period were 39-55% Asian stocks, 20-35% western Alaska stocks, and 21-29% southeastern Alaska, British Columbia, or Washington stocks.  One small sample (N=47) of maturing fish showed a surprisingly large contribution of British Columbia stocks (53%).  Estimates for our 1995 samples over seven time periods were 13-51% Asian stocks, 33-53% western Alaska stocks, and 9-46% southeastern Alaska, British Columbia, or Washington stocks.  As in 1994, the sample of maturing fish (N=277) showed a large contribution of British Columbia stocks (49%) and Washington stocks (25%).

Tags: alaska, alaska fisheries science center, auke bay laboratories, bering sea, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, national marine fisheries service, noaa, u.s. department of commerce
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
AFSC/ABL: Genetic data for juvenile chum salmon samples collected in the eastern Bering Sea on the U.S. BASIS cruises during 2003-2007.

Chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) are an important natural resource in western Alaska for subsistence, commercial and cultural reasons. Declines in chum salmon returns in some western Alaska drainages over the last couple of decades have prompted regulatory changes and bolstered research on this species in this region. Since 2002, juvenile chum salmon have been collected as part of the annual U.S. Bering-Aleutian Salmon International Survey (BASIS) during the late summer/fall season in the eastern Bering Sea. From the 2003-2007 collections, nearly 5,000 juvenile chum salmon samples were genetically analyzed. With the available microsatellite baseline, regional stock estimates were produced from mixed-stock analyses.  The proportions of juvenile chum salmon from four western Alaska regionsNorton Sound, lower Yukon (summer-run), upper Yukon (fall-run), and Kuskokwim/northeastern Bristol Baywere remarkably similar across years during early marine residence, especially given the latitudinal shifts from year-to-year in the distribution across the eastern Bering Sea shelf of this highly migratory species.  Most of the juvenile chum salmon were from the Yukon River, which has two life-history types, an earlier and typically more abundant summer run, and a later fall run.  The Kuskokwim/northeastern Bristol Bay contribution within the study area (lat. 58-63N) was negligible, indicating that these stocks do not migrate northward during their first summer.  The Norton Sound group contribution varied annually, but in general, increased with latitude.  These results support a migration model whereby western Alaska juvenile chum salmon, after leaving freshwater, head primarily west and south across the eastern Bering Sea shelf.  A relative abundance index was developed from the proportions of the two life-history types in the Yukon River of juvenile chum salmon in the survey area.  In all five years of collections, the summer-run contribution was higher than the fall-run contribution in the juvenile chum salmon samples.  The proportions of the two life-history types in the juvenile chum salmon collected at sea were compared with those in the Yukon River adult returns. A correlation was found between the juveniles and subsequent adult returns.  This suggests that it is during the period of freshwater and early marine residence that the cohort strength of Yukon River summer- and fall-run chum salmon is determined.

Tags: alaska, alaska fisheries science center, auke bay laboratories, bering sea, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, genetic data, microsatellites, national marine fisheries service, noaa, u.s. department of commerce, yukon river
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
AFSC/ABL: Sablefish longline survey gillnet data

Variable mesh gillnets were used to evaluate the abundance of young of the year sablefish during  1995-2002. Data include. Vessel, cruise, station. Species caught, and lengths of fish caught. The data were collected to be able to forecast year-class strength of sablefish.

Tags: alaska, alaska fisheries science center, auke bay laboratories, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, gillnet, gulf of alaska, national marine fisheries service, noaa, u.s. department of commerce
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
AFSC/RACE/MACE: Results of 2011 acoustic trawl survey Gulf of Alaska DY1103

Scientists from the Midwater Assessment and Conservation Engineering (MACE) Program of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE) Division routinely conduct acoustic-trawl (AT) stock assessment surveys to estimate the distribution and abundance of walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus).The survey (cruise DY2011-03) was conducted between 14 June and 12 August on the Gulf of Alaska shelf from 50-500 m depth extending from the Islands of Four Mountains to the Chiniak Trough east of Kodiak Island. The area referred to as the shelf includes transects that are roughly perpendicular to the continental shelf depth contours and extend in a general north-south direction from inshore bottom depths of <=50 m to upper continental slope bottom depths of >500 m. Smaller surveys were conducted in several bays and around islands including:  Morzhovoi Bay, Sanak Trough, Pavlof Bay, the Shumagin Islands areas of Renshaw Point, Unga Strait, and West Nagai Strait, Mitrofania Island, Nakchamik Island, Shelikof Strait, Chiniak Trough, Barnabas Trough, and Alitak Bay. All activities were conducted aboard the NOAA ship Oscar Dyson, a 64-m stern trawler equipped for fisheries and oceanographic research. The survey followed established AT methods as specified in NOAA protocols for fisheries acoustics surveys and related sampling.

Tags: afsc/race/mace: pollock acoustic/trawl survey biennial gulf of alaska, alaska fisheries science center, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, national marine fisheries service, noaa, u.s. department of commerce
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
AFSC/ABL: Eastern Bering Sea (BASIS) Coastal Research on Juvenile Salmon

Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) runs in rivers that flow into the eastern Bering Sea have been inconsistent and at times very weak. Low returns of chinook (O. tshawytscha) and chum (O. keta) salmon to the Yukon River, Kuskokwim River, and Norton Sound areas of Alaska prompted the state of Alaska to restrict commercial and subsistence fisheries during 2000 and declare the region a fisheries disaster area. Weak salmon returns to these river systems follow several years of low sockeye (O. nerka) salmon returns to Bristol Bay, which was declared a fisheries disaster region during 1998 by both the State of Alaska and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Causes of the poor salmon returns to these river systems are not known however, the regional-scale decline of these stocks indicates that the marine environment may play a critical role. Ocean conditions, particularly in the first few months after the salmon leave fresh water, are known to significantly affect salmon survival (Holtby et al. 1990; Friedland et al. 1996; Beamish and Mahnken 2001). Mechanisms affecting marine survival of the eastern Bering Sea salmon stocks are unknown, principally due to the lack of marine life history information on western Alaska salmon. To improve understanding of the marine life-history stage of salmon in the Bering Sea, the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) began an internationally coordinated research program on salmon in the Bering Sea called the Bering-Aleutian Salmon International Survey (BASIS) (NPAFC 2001).  As part of BASIS, scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Ocean Carrying Capacity (OCC) program conducted a fall survey on the eastern Bering Sea shelf to provide key ecological data for eastern Bering Sea salmon stocks during their juvenile life-history stage. The goal of the OCC/BASIS salmon research cruise was to understand mechanisms underlying the effects of environment on distribution, migration, and growth of juvenile salmon on the eastern Bering Sea shelf. Primary objectives of BASIS include:  1) to determine the extent of offshore migrations of juvenile salmon from rivers draining into the eastern Bering Sea, 2) to describe the physical environment of the eastern and northeastern Bering Sea shelf occupied by juvenile salmon, and 3) to collect biological information on other ecologically important species. Summaries of previous Bering Sea juvenile salmon research cruises can be found in Farley et al. (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005).

Tags: ak, alaska, alaska fisheries science center, auke bay laboratories, bering sea, diet, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, fish, growth, juvenile salmongenetic stock identification, migration, national marine fisheries service, noaa, otolithearly marine distribution, scale, trawling, u.s. department of commerce
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
AFSC/ABL: Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (GLOBEC) fish and oceanography data

Understanding the processes that regulate early marine survival of salmon is a major goal of the Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (GLOBEC) Northeast Pacific (NEP) program. Faster growth and larger body size are generally associated with higher marine survival for most species of juvenile salmon, which experience relatively high mortality rates during early marine life. The interaction between the temporal-spatial distribution of juvenile salmon, growth performance, environmental conditions, and stage-specific survival are critical to understanding how physical and biological factors contribute to production and survival, and influence the mechanisms, magnitude, location, and timing of marine mortality.
                The northern Coastal Gulf of Alaska (CGOA) is a highly productive, down-welling based system where freshwater runoff and winds dominate the physical processes on the shelf. The physical environment changes at different spatial and temporal scales, which is believed to influence inter-annual variability in distribution, feeding, growth, and survival of juvenile salmon. Pink salmon are the upper trophic level target species of GLOBEC, however, the overarching programmatic goal is to enhance our understanding of the processes driving the physical structure and biological productivity of the highly dynamic CGOA system.

Tags: alaska, alaska fisheries science center, auke bay laboratories, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, gulf of alaska, marine fish, national marine fisheries service, noaa, pink salmon, trawl, u.s. department of commerce
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
Obsolete - AFSC/RACE/EcoFOCI: 2011 Gulf of Alaska Late Larval Survey DY11-02/2DY11

A total of 70 stations were occupied.  The standard FOCI grid and line 8 were samped.  At each station we sampled using paired 20 and 60 cm Bongo frames (150 and 500 micron mesh nets, respectively).  A SeaBird SeaCat (SBE 19 plus) was used with the bongo frames to determine the depth of the samplers in real time and to measure temperature and conductivity.  On line 8 CTD casts were also taken.

We left Dutch Harbor at 2300 on May 31 (GMT time) and arrived at our first grid station, GV147, at approximately 0500 on June 2.  The deployment and retrieval of both the 60 cm bongo and the neuston gear were successful until the weather conditions became too severe to continue sampling our planned grid stations on the evening of June 2 after station 13 (HH151) was completed.   Operations were resumed at GV151 on June 4 at 0200 until another storm made sampling conditions difficult after station 55 (HD 165) on June 7 at 0330.  We waited in Alitak Bay on the south end of Kodiak Island to resume sampling.  Since so much sampling time had already been lost due to weather, it was decided to abandon the rest of the planned grid stations below Shelikof Strait and steam to Line 8 and resume sampling there.  We arrived at the first Line 8 station and began sampling at 2230 on June 7.  After all six of the Line 8 stations were completed, we resumed sampling at designated grid stations until it was necessary to head into port on June 9.

Tags: 20cm bongo, 60cm bongo, alaska fisheries science center, arrowtooth flounder, biological data, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, fish, fish larvae, gulf of alaska, ichthyoplankton, kayak island, kodiak island, national marine fisheries service, neuston net, noaa, northeast pacific ocean, obsolete data set, oceanographic data, pacific cod, plankton, recruitment processes program, rockfish, sablefish, seabird ctd, seabird seacat ctd, southeast coastal alaska, u.s. department of commerce, walleye pollock, yakutat bay, zooplankton
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce
AFSC/RACE/MACE: Results of 2012 acoustic trawl survey Shelikof DY1203

Scientists from the Midwater Assessment and Conservation Engineering (MACE) Program of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE) Division routinely conduct acoustic-trawl (AT) stock assessment surveys in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) during late winter and early spring to estimate the distribution and abundance of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma). This survey was conducted 17-27 March (cruise DY2012-03) along the shelf break east of Chirikof Island and throughout the Shelikof Strait sea valley. The survey was conducted aboard the NOAA ship Oscar Dyson, a 64-m stern trawler equipped for fisheries and oceanographic research. Surveys followed established AT methods as specified in NOAA protocols for fisheries acoustics surveys and related sampling.

Tags: afsc/race/mace: pollock acoustic/trawl survey spawning annual shelikof, alaska fisheries science center, doc/noaa/nmfs/afsc, national marine fisheries service, noaa, u.s. department of commerce
Organization: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce