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OVERVIEW OF STATE-MANAGED MARINE FISHERIES IN THE CENTRAL AND WESTERN GULF OF ALASKA, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, AND SOUTHEASTERN BERING SEA, WITH REFERENCE TO STELLER SEA LIONS

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  • Backwater Research
... These emergency orders establish parallel fishing seasons (termed "parallel fisheries") allowing vessels to fish for groundfish (primarily Pacific cod, walleye pollock, and Atka mackerel) in state waters with the same seasons as the federal fisheries. In other instances, the State of Alaska establishes "state waters" (or state-managed) fisheries with separate catch quotas (termed GHLs in state management), and fishing seasons under state groundfish regulations (Kruse et al. 2000). Where there is a federal and parallel fishery for a species, the state waters fishery usually opens after the parallel fishery closes. ...
... Cod enter the fishery about age 7 and may live 19 years or more. Primary products from the cod fishery include a headed and gutted (H&G) product, fillets, and to a lesser extent salted, whole fish, and roe (Kruse et al. 2000). ...
... The oldest groundfish fishery off Alaska targets Pacific cod. The developing fishery peaked during 1916-1920 and steadily declined to 1950 (Kruse et al. 2000). Pacific cod supported large foreign fisheries in the Bering Sea during the 1960s and early 1970s. ...
... Unless otherwise noted, the following review of red king crab fisheries is summarized in Table 2 from the synthesis of Kruse et al. (2000) and updated by Woodby and Hulbert (2006). King crab fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska were initiated by Japanese fishermen in the late 1930s and small domestic catches were also taken. ...
... Crab population abundances and catches in Alaska have fluctuated greatly over time (Zheng et al., 1995Zheng et al., 1998b;Kruse et al., 2000). The abundance of commercial-sized red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus) in the Gulf of Alaska peaked in 1965 with a catch of 51,427 t. ...
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During the last three decades, population abundances of eastern Bering Sea (EBS) crab stocks fluctuated greatly, driven by highly variable recruitment. In recent years, abundances of these stocks have been very low compared to historical levels. This study aims to understand recruitment variation of six stocks of red king (Paralithodes camtschaticus), blue king (P. platypus), Tanner (Chionoecetes bairdi), and snow (C. opilio) crabs in the EBS. Most crab recruitment time series are not significantly correlated with each other. Spatial distributions of three broadly distributed crab stocks (EBS snow and Tanner crabs and Bristol Bay red king crab) have changed considerably over time, possibly related in part to the regime shift in climate and physical oceanography in 1976–1977. Three climate-forcing hypotheses on larval survival have been proposed to explain crab recruitment variation of Bristol Bay red king crab and EBS Tanner and snow crabs. Some empirical evidence supports speculation that groundfish predation may play an important role in crab recruitment success in the EBS. However, spatial dynamics in the geographic distributions of groundfish and crabs over time make it difficult to relate crab recruitment strength to groundfish biomass. Comprehensive field and spatially explicit modeling studies are needed to test the hypotheses and better understand the relative importance and compound effects of bottom-up and top-down controls on crab recruitment.
... Finally, there is a considerable database on Steller sea lions because of their endangered status, and the possible implications of the highly valued walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) fishery in their decline (Ferrero and Fritz, 2002). The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has conducted periodic aerial surveys of Steller sea lions on various haulouts and rookeries for several decades (Kruse et al., 2000; Sease et al., 2001). There are 13 years with NMFS counts of Steller sea lions in PWS and vicinity between 1973 and 2004, including five made during the critical post-EVOS years 1989– 1993 (Table 1). ...
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Thorne, R. E., and Thomas, G. L. 2008. Herring and the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill: an investigation into historical data conflicts. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 44–50.It was generally believed that the 1989 “Exxon Valdez” oil spill did not cause the collapse of the Prince William Sound Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) population because of a 4-year gap between the spill and the collapse. However, we noted in a previous paper that some data suggested an earlier timing for the herring decline. We examine historical patterns of herring spawn, anomalies in historical fisheries model predictions, changes in predation behaviour of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus), and a decadal database of acoustic measurements of herring biomass. Behaviour of adult herring makes them especially vulnerable to damage from oil spills, something that was either unknown or misunderstood at the time of the spill. We therefore argue that the start of the herring decline was coincident with the oil spill, and that the decline took place over a 5-year period, rather than the single-year collapse previously reported. Although a comprehensive management approach is now in use for herring, the tools were not in place at the time of the oil spill or the subsequent collapse.
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This paper examines the ratio of the weight of the herring catch to the total weight of the ground fish catch in observer records from Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) and pollock (Theregra chalcogramma) bottom trawl tows, in order to define an index of herring abundance. The index is used to determine the timing and location of herring stocks during their annual migration . This index would be expected to fluctuate with ground fish density as well as with herring density. However, because the herring migration is a relatively distinct phenomenon, the index is sufficient to delineate the general movements of herring during the annual migration . Also, over the 1983 through 1988 period, the abundance of both herring and groundfish stocks was relatively constant.
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