Scientists from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center conducted an acoustic-trawl survey in early March 2016 to estimate the abundance of pre-spawning walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) in the southeastern Aleutian Basin near Bogoslof Island. This report summarizes the observed pollock distribution and biological information, and provides an abundance estimate used for stock assessment. The estimated abundance for pollock in 2016 was 866 million fish weighing 507 thousand tons, which is a 665% increase in abundance and a 352% increase in biomass from the 2014 survey estimates. The pollock population was dominated by younger fish; 91% were less than 51 cm and 97% were less than 9 years of age. Most of the fish were from the 2009 year class, which was not a strong year class in the eastern Bering Sea or the Gulf of Alaska. Second in importance were fish from the 2012 year class, which was a strong year class in the eastern Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. [doi:10.7289/V5AFSC-PR-2017-11 (https://doi.org/10.7289/V5/AFSC-PR-2017-11)]

http://doi.org/10.7289/V5/AFSC-PR-2017-11

Public Domain