Using Salmon Survey and Commercial Fishery Data to Index Nearshore Rearing Conditions and Recruitment of Alaskan Sablefish

• Published in: Marine and Coastal Fisheries
• Main Authors: Yasumiishi, Ellen M., Shotwell, S. Kalei, Hanselman, Dana H., Orsi, Joseph A., Fergusson, Emily A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2015
• Subjects: Gulf of Alaska; Pacific; Pink salmon; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19425120.2015.1047070; https://afspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19425120.2015.1047070

Abstract We examined physical and biological indices from Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. surveys and commercial fisheries to index nearshore rearing habitats used by age‐0 and age‐1 Sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria in the eastern Gulf of Alaska and as indicators for their recruitment to age2 during the period 2001–2013. The best‐fitting general linear model used to estimate age‐2 Sablefish recruitment included chlorophyll‐ a concentration during late August and an index of juvenile Pink Salmon O. gorbuscha abundance during the age‐0 stage of Sablefish. The model and biophysical indices from 2012 and 2013 produced a forecast of 23 million age‐2 Sablefish for 2014 and a forecast of 8 million Sablefish for 2015. This study highlights the opportunity to use proxies for direct ambient physical and biological observations of rearing habitats in estimating groundfish recruitment to older ages. Received November 6, 2014; accepted April 10, 2015