The Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) conducts annual longline surveys to estimate the relative abundance of major groundfish species on the continental slope of the eastern Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and the Gulf of Alaska. The survey is primarily designed to assess sablefish and indices of abundance have been computed since 1979. Catch data from other species are also available. From 1979 to 1994, the AFSC conducted cooperative annual longline surveys with Japan, and then independently from 1987 to present.