EK60 Water Column Sonar Data Collected During DY1006

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.