Appendix F GRENADIERS IN THE GULF OF ALASKA, EASTERN BERING SEA, AND ALEUTIAN ISLANDS

• Main Author: David M. Clausen
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bering Sea; Greenland; Gulf of Alaska; Turbot; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.152.7858; http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/refm/docs/2006/grenadiers.pdf

Of the seven species of grenadiers known to occur in Alaska, the giant grenadier appears to be most abundant and also has the shallowest depth distribution on the continental slope. As a result, it is by far the most common grenadier caught in the commercial fishery and in fish surveys. Therefore, this report focuses on giant grenadier. No official catch statistics exist for grenadiers in Alaska because they are considered “non-specified ” by the NPFMC. However, catches for the years 1997-2005 have been estimated for the eastern Bering Sea (EBS), Aleutian Islands (AI), and Gulf of Alaska (GOA) based largely on data from the Alaska Fishery Science Center’s Groundfish Observer Program. Average catches in the EBS have been 3,154 mt, in the AI 2,358 mt, and in the GOA 10,903 mt. Species breakdown of the grenadier catch is unknown, but is believed to be nearly all giant grenadier. Except for two very small attempts at targeted fishing, all the catch has been taken as bycatch and discarded. Discard mortality is 100%. The catch comes primarily from sablefish and Greenland turbot longline fisheries. The only age-and-growth study for giant grenadiers found a maximum age of 56 years in the GOA, but the otoliths were extremely difficult to age and von Bertalanffy growth curves did not yield a reasonable fit to the data. This maximum age of 56 was used in the Hoenig method to compute a natural mortality