Age- and length-at-maturity of female arrowtooth flounder (Atheresthes stomias) in the Gulf of Alaska

• Main Author: Stark, James W.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Biology; Ecology; Fisheries; Bering Sea; Gulf of Alaska; Navarin; Okhotsk; Pacific; Theragra chalcogramma; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1834/25487

Arrowtooth flounder (Atheresthes stomias) has had the highest abundance of any groundfish species in the Gulfof Alaska since the 1970s (Matarese et al., 2003; Turnock et al., 2005; Blood et al., 2007); however, commercialcatches have been restricted because Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) are caught as bycatch in the fishery. Arrowtooth flounder plays a key role in the ecosystem because it is a dominant organism within thefood web, both as an apex predator of fish and invertebrates, as well as an important prey for walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma; Aydin et al., 2002). Walleye pollock is the dominant groundfish in the BeringSea, a principal groundfish in the Gulf of Alaska, and the primary prey for marine mammals. The distribution of arrowtooth flounder extends from Cape Navarin and the eastern Sea of Okhotsk in Russia, across the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, Gulf of Alaska, and south to the coast ofcentral California (Shuntov, 1964; Britt and Martin, 2001; Chetvergov, 2001; Weinberg et al., 2002; Zenger, 2004). Because of the importance of arrowtooth flounder in the marine ecosystem of A laska, a maturity study of this species was undertaken to determine age-at-maturity, whichis essential for age-based stock management models. Before these results, management has had to rely upon a length-at-maturity-based estimate (Zimmermann, 1997) to manage stocks in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), Bering Sea, and Aleutian Islands. The central GOA was selected as the location for this maturity study Age- and length-at-maturity of female arrowtooth flounder (Atheresthes stomias) in the Gulf of Alaska because it contains approximately 70% of the total Gulf of Alaska arrowtooth flounder biomass (1.9×106 t, age3 and older)— the highest percentage in the world (Shuntov, 1964; Britt and Martin, 2001; Weinberg et al., 2002;Wilderbuer and Nichol, 2006).