YELLOWFIN SOLE Thomas K. Wilderbuer and Daniel Nichol EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• Main Authors: The Following Changes, Thomas K. Wilderbuer, Daniel Nichol
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: Bering Sea; British Columbia; Canada; Chukchi Sea; Chukchi; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.13.4202; http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc/safes/2000/3yellow.bsa.pdf

INTRODUCTION The yellowfin sole (Limanda aspera) is the most abundant flatfish species in the eastern Bering Sea (EBS) and is the target of the largest flatfish fishery in the United States. The resource inhabits the EBS shelf and is considered one stock. Abundance in the Aleutian Islands region is negligible. Yellowfin sole are distributed in North American waters from off British Columbia, Canada, (approx. lat. 49 N) to the Chukchi Sea (about lat. 70 N) and south along the Asian coast to about lat. 35 N off the South Korean coast in the Sea of Japan. Adults exhibit a benthic lifestyle and occupy separate winter, spawning and summertime feeding distributions on the eastern Bering Sea shelf. From over-winter grounds near the shelf margins, adults begin a migration onto the inner shelf in April or early May each year for spawning and feeding. The directed fishery typically occurs from spring through December. CATCH HISTORY Yellowfin sole have annually been caught with bottom trawl