AFSC/RACE/MACE: Results of 2013 acoustic trawl survey Gulf of Alaska DY1307

Scientists from the Midwater Assessment and Conservation Engineering (MACE) Program of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE) Division conducted an acoustic-trawl (AT) stock assessment survey of portions of the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) shelf to estimate the distribution and abundance of walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) during summer of 2013. The survey (cruise DY2013-07) was conducted between 8 June and 9 August on the Gulf of Alaska shelf from 50-1,000 m depth extending from the Islands of Four Mountains to Yakutat Bay. The area referred to as the shelf includes transects that are roughly perpendicular to the continental shelf depth contours and extend in a general north-south direction from inshore bottom depths of =50 m to upper continental slope bottom depths of > 1,000 m. Smaller surveys were conducted in several bays and around islands including: Sanak Trough, Morzhovoi Bay, Pavlof Bay, the Shumagin Islands area (including Renshaw Point, Unga Strait, and West Nagai Strait), Mitrofania Island, Nakchamik Island, Shelikof Strait, Alitak Bay,Barnabas Trough, Chiniak Trough, Marmot Bay, Prince William Sound, Kayak Island Trough, and Yakutat Trough. All activities were conducted aboard the NOAA ship Oscar Dyson, a 64-m stern trawler equipped for fisheries and oceanographic research. The survey followed established AT survey methods as specified in NOAA protocols for fisheries acoustics surveys and related sampling.