FY 1995

Guiding fisheries management by examining relationships between features of the environment and recruitment variation in Gulf of Alaska walleye pollock

Macklin, S.A., B.A. Megrey, A.B. Hollowed, P.J. Stabeno, and S.R. Hare

In Coastal Zone '95: Extended Abstracts for the Ninth Conference, B.L. Edge (ed.), American Society of Civil Engineers, Tampa, FL, 16–21 July 1995, 173–174 (1995)

NOAA's Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI) provides guidance through the National Marine Fisheries Service to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council for the management of walleye pollock in the Gulf of Alaska. The National Marine Fisheries Service's quantitative estimates of recruitment are obtained from models of stock assessment and stock projection employing information generated by FOCI. To generate its information FOCI convenes disciplinary specialists to assemble and analyze relevant time series of biological and physical parameters with respect to recruitment of fish. Statistical methods encompass nonlinear regression, transfer function modeling, nonlinear response surface analysis, and tree-modeling regression. The current database consists of about 30 years of data, and analyses have identified factors that affect ocean stratification and circulation during spring and summer of the fish's birth year as being important to recruitment. Actual recruitment during the past several years has corroborated FOCI's predictions.