Science & Data

We use information collected during the Alaska Fisheries Science Center's annual longline survey on the continental slope of the eastern Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and the Gulf of Alaska to estimate the size of the sablefish population in Alaska.

We develop computer models and input a variety of data collected during research surveys in Alaska to determine the condition of Pacific Ocean Perch stocks.

By understanding the relationship between fish species and their marine environment, we are able to enhance the accuracy of our fish stock estimates.

The fishery and oceanographic survey in the Northeastern Bering Sea combines surface trawl and midwater acoustics to collect indices on fish size, relative abundance, energetic status, distribution, and diet.

NOAA Fisheries has been tagging and releasing sablefish in Alaska waters since 1972. In that time, approximately 360,000 tags have been released and over 34,000 have been recovered. Tagging effort in Alaska has been centered in three main areas: 1) adult sablefish in offshore waters of the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and the Aleutian Islands; 2) adult sablefish in the inside waters of Chatham and Clarence Straits; and 3) juvenile sablefish in southeast Alaska.

The Habitat and Ecological Processes Research Program develops scientific research that supports implementation of an ecosystem approach to fishery management.

Alaska Fisheries Science Center conducts a variety of research on Pacific ocean perch, which seem to be most abundant in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands.

Researchers are using independent data to gain a fuller view of Groundfish in the Bering Sea.

Climate change is causing loss of sea ice in the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Addressing ecosystem-related shifts is critical for fisheries management, because nationally important Bering Sea commercial fisheries are located primarily within the southeastern Bering Sea, and for successful co-management of marine mammals, which at least thirty Alaska Native communities depend on.

Many data sets have been collected by Auke Bay Laboratories over the years. For our purposes, a data set is defined as a collection of data records organized around a common attribute. A data set is created by converting raw data into records. Raw data are collected by the trained observer, and then converted into processed data by one or more actions. A record is a collection of processed data organized around some common attribute, such as date of collection, locality of collection, individual animal and so forth. A data set is a collection of those records.