| Acoustic-Trawl Survey of Walleye Pollock on the U.S. and Russian Bering Sea Shelf
(DY1006, EK60). The Midwater Assessment and Conservation Engineering (MACE) program
of NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Alaska Fisheries Science Center
(AFSC) conducted an acoustic-trawl (AT) stock assessment survey on the U.S. and Russian
Bering Sea shelf during late spring/summer of 2010 to estimate the distribution and
abundance of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma). The survey was conducted from
Bristol Bay, eastern Bering Sea in the U.S. to Cape Navarin, Russia, 7 June to 10
August aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson, a 64 meter stern trawler equipped with acoustic
and oceanographic instrumentation. The vessel departed Kodiak, Alaska on 5 June and
arrived in Dutch Harbor on 7 August. The cruise was completed in three legs (leg 1,
5-24 June; leg 2, 29 June to 16 July; leg 3, 20 July to 7 August), with port calls
in Dutch Harbor, Alaska; a personnel exchange occurred in Dutch Harbor on 18 June.
Fisheries research operations were conducted on Snakehead plateau south of Kodiak
Island 7-9 June and again in the Bering Sea 3-5 August. The EK60 echosounder system
was calibrated at the start of the cruise in Three Saints Bay, Kodiak Island, Alaska
5-6 June, and at the end of the cruise in Anderson Bay, Unalaska Island, Alaska 6-7
August. |