Science & Data

This survey collects important information on the status and trends of commercially important fish, crabs, and other species.

The Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) report summarizes the best available scientific information concerning the past, present, and possible future condition of the stocks, marine ecosystems, and fisheries that are managed under Federal regulation. It provides information to the Councils for determining annual harvest levels from each stock, documenting significant trends or changes in the resource, marine ecosystems, and fishery over time, and assessing the relative success of existing state and Federal fishery management programs. For the FMP for the Groundfish Fishery of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Area, the SAFE report is published in three sections: a “Stock Assessment” section, which comprises the bulk of this document, and “Economic Status of Groundfish Fisheries off Alaska” (i.e., the “Economic SAFE report”) and “Ecosystem Considerations” sections, which are bound separately.

The goal of the Ecosystem Considerations report is to provide stronger links between ecosystem research and fishery management.

The goal of the Ecosystem Considerations report is to provide stronger links between ecosystem research and fishery management.

This database contains the Stock Assessment Result data from the 2014-2016 research season.

The goal of the Ecosystem Considerations report is to provide stronger links between ecosystem research and fishery management and to spur new understanding of the connections between ecosystem components by bringing together the results of many diverse research efforts into one document. However, this year the report has been split into four separate documents, one for the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, eastern Bering Sea, and the Arctic1. This new presentation allows for a more cohesive focus on each large marine ecosystem (LME). While this simplifies navigation for the reader, it also better highlights data gaps and research needs within each LME.

Flathead sole (Hippoglossoides elassodon) are assessed on a biennial stock assessment schedule to coincide with the availability of new survey data. For Gulf of Alaska flathead sole in alternate (even) years we present an executive summary to recommend harvest levels for the next two years.

"Flathead sole" as currently managed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) represents a two-species complex consisting of true flathead sole (Hippoglossoides elassodon) and its morphologically-similar congener Bering flounder (H. robustus). "Flathead sole" was formerly a constituent of the "other flatfish" SAFE chapter. Based on changes in the directed fishing standards to allow increased retention of flatfish, in June 1994 the Council requested the BSAI Plan Team to assign a separate Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) and Overfishing Limit (OFL) to "flathead sole" in the BSAI, rather than combining them into the "other flatfish" recommendations as in previous assessments. Subsequent to this request, stock assessments for "flathead sole" have been generated annually to provide updated recommendations for ABC and OFL.

Flathead sole are distributed from northern California, off Point Reyes, northward along the west coast of North America and throughout the Gulf of Alaska and the Eastern Bering Sea, the Kuril Islands, and possibly the Okhotsk Sea.

Flathead sole as currently managed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in the Bering  Sea and Aleutian Islands represents a two-species complex consisting of true flathead sole and its morphologically-similar congener Bering flounder.