June 12, 2003
Thursday - 11:40 am

Three vessels chartered by NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center have begun more than two months of scientific bottom trawl surveys in the Gulf of Alaska, continuing data-gathering that has gone on every two or three years since 1984. These data are used to help determine future management decisions regarding fishing activities in the Gulf of Alaska according to a NOAA news release.

Scientists on the Sea Storm, the Gladiator, and the Northwest Explorer plan to complete about 800 survey trawl hauls over a 75-day period along the continental shelf and upper continental slope of the Gulf of Alaska. They started May 20 in Dutch Harbor and are expected to end in early August in Ketchikan.

"This biennial survey tells us trends in the distribution and abundance of important groundfish species such as walleye pollock, Pacific cod, flatfish and rockfish" said Alaska Fisheries Science Center's Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering Director Gary Stauffer "It also helps us measure various biological and environmental parameters such as sea surface and bottom temperatures and the size, age, and food habits of important groundfish."

The survey has been carried out every other year since 1999­before then, it was every three years, starting in 1984.

The three vessels started the survey near the Islands of Four Mountains and will work their way eastward to the U.S.-Canada boarder in Dixon Entrance. All three vessels will stop for cruise breaks in Sand Point, Kodiak, and Cordova. Each of the vessels is identified with clearly visible NOAA Research placards. Of particular note is the operation of the three vessels in southeast Alaska from mid-July to early August. Trawl vessels are not typically seen in southeast Alaska.

Each vessel will make 15-minute trawl hauls at specific, randomly preselected stations. The trawl catches are sorted, weighed, and enumerated by species. Samples will be collected from selected specimens to determine fish size and age, sexual maturity, and food habits. The temperature of the ocean and depth of the surveys are recorded by a 'bathythermograph' attached to the trawl headrope. Sample depths will range from depths greater than 15 meters near shore to 700 meters on the continental slope.

Each of the three vessels holds six researchers plus the crew. Participating researchers are from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, the California Academy of Sciences, the International Pacific Halibut Commission and the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council.

Source of News Release:

NOAA Fisheries - Alaska
Web Site

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