Data is available from annual bottom longline surveys conducted cooperatively by Japan (1979-1994) and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Fisheries Science Center (1988-present). Starting in 1988, the U.S. started conducting the survey, creating overlap between the two countries between1988-1994. Since 1994, the U.S. has conducted the survey independently. Stations are spaced systematically (~20-30 km apart) along the slope from the eastern Gulf of Alaska west to the Aleutian Islands and north into the eastern Bering Sea. At each station, depths from ~150-1000 meters are sampled. Each year the captain attempts to set the gear along the same path. The same stations are sampled each year except in the Aleutian Islands and the Bering Sea, which are sampled every other year at the beginning of the survey (last week of May-early June). Since 1995, in odd years the Bering Sea stations are sampled and in even years the Aleutian Islands are sampled. The status of each hook is recorded. Lengths are taken from major species including, sablefish, giant grenadier, Pacific grenadier, Greenland turbot, arrowtooth flounder, Pacific cod, shortspine thornyhead, and all rockfish caught.

Giant grenadiers Albatrossia pectoralis are caught as bycatch in deep-sea commercial fisheries in relatively large numbers. The population appears to be stable, although there is no directed fishery, catch limits, or reporting requirements. The purpose of our study was to describe and quantify the reproductive life history characteristics and natural mortality of female giant grenadiers. During the summers of 2004 and 2006, a total of 338 specimens were collected from the Gulf of Alaska. Every phase of reproductive development was found, suggesting a protracted annual spawning season. An ovarian wall thickness technique was used to successfully place 31% (n 24) of the fish with an unknown maturity status into a known category. Female age at 50% maturity was 22.9 years, and preanal fin length at 50% maturity was 26 cm. Total fecundity ranged from 35,000 to 231,000 oocytes (mean106,761), with a mean mature oocyte diameter of 1.26 mm. We developed a new technique for preparing otoliths for age determination by grinding off the distal surface to elucidate the growth zones; age ranged from 14 to 58 years. Estimates of natural female mortality ranged from 0.052 to 0.079 and estimates of total female mortality from 0.061 to 0.149. This life history information will be essential for future management of giant grenadier populations in the North Pacific Ocean.

Diel epipelagic sampling for juvenile Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), rockfish (Sebastes spp.), sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria), and associated species was conducted in order to identify factors that may affect year-class success of these commercially important species. Sampling occurred in offshore marine habitats of the coastal northeast Pacific Ocean from 10-20 August 2005 and was conducted with a surface trawl fishing the upper 20 m of the water column along transects up to78 km offshore near 58 N. Three habitats were sampled along each transect over a 24-hr period: the continental shelf (<200 m depth), the continental slope (400-750 m depth), and the abyss (>2,000 m depth). A total of 38,747 fish and squid representing 24 species were sampled in 56 trawl hauls. Of the targeted juvenile fish species, a total of 587 salmon, 11 rockfish, and 70 sablefish were captured. Sampling during day (1500-1900) and night (2200-0200) periods indicated that biomass of fish and squid was 2-4 times higher at night at (each?)all habitat types pooled across transects. No distinct patterns between day or night occurrence were noted for juvenile pink salmon (O. gorbuscha), chum salmon (O. keta), sockeye salmon (O. nerka), or coho salmon (O. kisutch), however, juvenile Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) were encountered only at night. Catches of juvenile rockfish and juvenile sablefish were quite low in this study, and larger sample sizes of these fish are needed to adequately determine their diel distribution. Diel differences were apparent with forage species such as Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi), capelin (Mallotus villosus), and eulachon (Thaleichthys pacificus) that were almost exclusively sampled at night. The offshore distribution patterns of target species were distinctly different, with the most common occurrences of juvenile salmon over continental shelf habitats, juvenile sablefish over continental shelf and slope habitats, and juvenile rockfish over slope and abyss habitats. Pacific herring, capelin, eulachon, and Pacific sardines (Sardinops sagax) were found over continental shelf habitats, whereas small squid and myctophids occurred primarily at slope and abyssal habitats. The greatest overall catch biomass was of gelatinous species (jellyfish), which was consistently higher than that of all fish and squid combined, usually by an order of magnitude. Individual fish or squid species with highest average weight per haul were pomfret (Brama japonica), adult coho salmon, Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas), and blue sharks (Prionace glauca). The occurrence of the latter two warm-water species and Pacific sardines were of interest because this study occurred during an anomalously warm year and the capture of Pacific sardines and Humboldt squid represent northern range extensions for these species. Stomach content analysis of potential predator species of the target species showed that only adult coho salmon were predating on juvenile salmon and sablefish, and only pomfret were predating on juvenile rockfish. Further sampling of the target species is needed in these habitats during more normal environmental conditions to validate these observations.

Variable mesh gillnets were used to evaluate the abundance of young of the year sablefish during 1995-2002. Data include. Vessel, cruise, station. Species caught, and lengths of fish caught. The data were collected to be able to forecast year-class strength of sablefish.

Since 1988, scientists at the Auke Bay Laboratories have been using the /Delta/ submarine for a wide range of research projects. Over 500 dives have been completed. The video collected during these projects provides valuable direct observations of seafloor habitat and biological attributes. This project is assembling a database that will include dive locations and basic biological and substrate information from each of the dives. To date, biological and substrate data have been processed for about 40% of the dives.

Herring is one of the most energy-rich fish in the Alaskan ecosystem, and when populations struggle over time, such as the Lynn Canal population, there is management concern. Prior to 1983, Lynn Canal herring supported a productive sac roe fishery, a bait fishery, and a winter food and bait fishery. All commercial fisheries were closed in 1983 and remain so today. The purpose of this study was to examine the genetic structure of Lynn Canal herring and determine if it was discrete from other collections in southeast Alaska. We used microsatellite DNA to examine both spawning and non-spawning aggregates (collected in two consecutive years) in Lynn Canal, and compared them to two Southeast Alaska populations: Prince of Wales Island (southernmost waters) and Sitka Sound on Baranof Island (outer-coast). In addition we examined two collections from Prince William Sound (approx. 850 km NW) as a means to compare extent of divergence over large tracts of unsuitable spawning habitat. Because the geographic location of Lynn Canal is somewhat isolated and schools are known to over-winter in the area, we hypothesized that Lynn Canal herring experience reduced gene flow. The results of our study showed allele frequencies from 16 loci were highly similar across all collections, including the distant Prince William Sound. This investigation concurs with previous studies that there is a large amount of movement among herring in the Gulf of Alaska. We conclude that Lynn Canal herring are part of a meta-population that is possibly Gulf wide or larger.

Two-day experiments have been conducted as a separate leg on the Alaska Fisheries Science Centers longline survey since 1998. Experiments are conducted usually in the vicinity of Yakutat, Alaska in late July of each year. The majority of projects are longline gear related and include hook spacing experiments, hand versus auto bait gear comparisons, and bait type comparisons. Rockfish genetics and sperm whale depredation studies have also been conducted. Data collected during the two-day experiments include 100% hook census of catch, lengths of major species caught, and data collection procedures relevant to each individual study. The data are housed in a Microsoft Access database and maintained by the Marine Ecology and Stock Assessment group at the Auke Bay Laboratories.

We assembled 1.75 million National Ocean Service (NOS) bathymetric soundings from 225 lead-line and single-beam echosounder hydrographic surveys conducted from 1901 to 1999 in the central Gulf of Alaska. These bathymetry data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov), which archives and distributes data that were originally collected by the NOS and others. While various bathymetry data have been downloaded previously from NGDC, compiled, and used for a variety of projects, our effort differed in that we compared and corrected the digital bathymetry by studying the original analog source documents - digital versions of the original survey maps, called smooth sheets. There were several areas where these older surveys were superseded by more recent, higher quality multibeam surveys, mostly from the NOS (n=106). Three of these were unprocessed NOS multibeam surveys in the Sitka area, which we edited and processed into final bathymetric surfaces. We reduced the resolution of these multibeam surveys to 100 m, since some may have sub-meter resolution and many exceed a million soundings, and added them to our bathymetry compilation. Survey H11354 was missing in the entrance to Sitka Sound. Processing and adding its bathymetric data to our compilation filled in a substantial gap in Sitka area.

In order to manage vulnerable benthic habitats, such as deep-sea corals and sponges, the impacts of human activity including commercial fishing must be known and accounted for. One type of fishing gear whose impact has rarely been studied is commercial longline gear. We performed a series of experiments in 2013 and 2014 to address this knowledge gap using inertial measurement units and underwater cameras. These data area stored as image files, .bcs files and as .csv files.

We assembled 1.75 million National Ocean Service (NOS) bathymetric soundings from 225 lead-line and single-beam echosounder hydrographic surveys conducted from 1901 to 1999 in the central Gulf of Alaska. These bathymetry data are available from the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov), which archives and distributes data that were originally collected by the NOS and others. While various bathymetry data have been downloaded previously from NGDC, compiled, and used for a variety of projects, our effort differed in that we compared and corrected the digital bathymetry by studying the original analog source documents - digital versions of the original survey maps, called smooth sheets. There were several areas where these older surveys were superseded by more recent, higher quality multibeam surveys, mostly from the NOS (n=106). Three of these were unprocessed NOS multibeam surveys in the Sitka area, which we edited and processed into final bathymetric surfaces. We reduced the resolution of these multibeam surveys to 100 m, since some may have sub-meter resolution and many exceed a million soundings, and added them to our bathymetry compilation. In Sitka Sound survey H11118 was missing. Processing and adding its bathymetric data to our compilation filled in a substantial gap in Sitka area, between Kruzof, Krestof, and Middle islands.