Science & Data

This report presents the summary views of Drs. Patrick Cordue, Cynthia Jones, and Robert Mohn on each of three terms of reference, as the reviewers were required to generate under the review statement of work. As such, the report only collates the summary views to generate a concise set of summaries, and it does not otherwise alter the reviewers’ text. For a more detailed discussion on each term, the reader should refer to the reviewers’ full reports.

This fish and invertebrate photo gallery serves to aid students and scientists with visual identification reference guide images. TERMS OF USE: Unless indicated otherwise Alaska Fisheries Science Center photos and videos are in the public domain and cannot be copyrighted. Credit should be given to (photographer's name if available), Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries. For use of images other than those of the AFSC, please contact the image source as credited on the image detail page.

The Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Other rockfish complex includes all species of Sebastes and Sebastolobus, except for Pacific ocean perch (POP, Sebastes alutus), northern rockfish (Sebastes polyspinis), dark rockfish (Sebastes ciliatus), rougheye rockfish (Sebastes aleutianus), blackspotted rockfish (Sebastes melanostictus) and shortraker rockfish (Sebastes borealis). The seven most abundant species in this complex are shortspine thornyhead; Sebastolobus alascanus, dusky rockfish; Sebastes variabilis, redbanded rockfish; Sebastes babcocki, redstripe rockfish; Sebastes proriger, yelloweye rockfish; Sebastes ruberrimus, harlequin rockfish; Sebastes variegatus, and sharpchin rockfish; Sebastes zacentrus. Many of the species in the genus Sebastes are relatively uncommon; and different species may be represented in different years. The two most abundant species in the Other Rockfish complex are dusky rockfish and shortspine thornyheads (SST).

The demersal shelf rockfish (DSR) complex (yelloweye, quillback, copper, rosethorn, canary, China, and tiger rockfish) (Table 1) is assessed on a biennial cycle, with full stock assessments typically conducted in odd calendar years, however we are presenting a full stock assessment this year to coincide with new survey data and the development of a new model. Historically, the stock assessment was based on relative abundance estimates from a manned submersible (Delta), however as of 2010, the submersible was retired from use. No surveys were conducted in 2010 and 2011 while an alternate vehicle was sought. In 2012, we transitioned the survey from a submersible to a remote operated vehicle (ROV), and conducted stock assessment surveys in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, we planned to conduct a survey but had to cancel due to weather. The acceptable biological catch (ABC) and overfishing level (OFL) for this year’s SAFE (Table 2) are based on the most recent ROV and submersible density estimates of yelloweye rockfish in each management area using our historical methodology (Brylinsky et al. 2009). However, the results of a preliminary statistical age-structured model, which incorporates submersible and ROV yelloweye rockfish density estimates, commercial, sport, and subsistence fishery data, and International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) survey data, are presented in Appendix B.