Eastern Bering Sea

• Main Authors: Walleye Pollock, Stock Assessment, James N. Ianelli, Steve Barbeaux, Gary Walters, Taina Honkalehto, Neal Williamson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bering Sea; Tac; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.612.6266; http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/refm/docs/2004/ebspollock.pdf

The primary focus of this chapter is on the eastern Bering Sea region. The Bogoslof Island area analysis is presented in separate section below. A new age-structured Aleutian Islands assessment for pollock is presented in separate section. Changes in the input data The 2004 NMFS summer bottom-trawl (BTS) and echo-integration trawl (EIT) survey estimates were available for analysis in this assessment. The biomass estimate from the BTS was 3.75 million tons, a substantial drop from the value of 8.14 million tons estimated in 2003 but similar to the model estimate for the BTS in 2003 (4.18 million tons). The 2004 BTS and EIT survey estimates included population numbers at age (using an age-length key derived from the 2004 BTS data). The biomass estimate from this survey was 3.31 million tons, down from 3.6 million tons estimated in 2002 but close to the average estimated by this survey since 1982 (3.36 million tons). The NMFS observer samples of pollock age and size composition were evaluated for the 2003 fishery and these data were included in the analyses. The estimates of average weight-at-age from the fishery were also revised. The total pollock catch estimate for 2003 was estimated using the NMFS Alaska Region data. The 2004 catch was assumed to equal the TAC (1,492,000 t).