Acoustic-Trawl Survey of Walleye Pollock on the U.S. and Russian Bering Sea Shelf
(DY0909, 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 2009 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, 9 June to 7 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, 9-28 June;
leg 2, 1-18 July; leg 3, 21 July to 7 August), with port calls in Dutch Harbor, Alaska;
a personnel exchange occurred in Dutch Harbor on 21 June. Fisheries gear research
operations were conducted on 16 June and again 3-5 August. The EK60 echosounder system
was calibrated at the start of the cruise in Three Saints Bay, Kodiak Island, Alaska
10-11 June, and at the end of the cruise in Anderson Bay, Unalaska Island, Alaska
6-7 August. |