ES60 Water Column Sonar Data Collected During AI16AP

The eighth biennial groundfish assessment survey of the Aleutian Islands region was conducted during the summer of 2016 by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s (AFSC) Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering Division’s Groundfish Assessment Program (RACE-GAP). This effort constitutes the fourteenth in the full series dating from 1980. The survey area covered the continental shelf and upper continental slope to 500 m in the Aleutian Archipelago from Islands of Four Mountains (170° W long.) to Stalemate Bank (170° E long.), including Petrel Bank and Petrel Spur (180° long.), and the northern side of the Aleutian Islands between Unimak Pass (165° W long.) and the Islands of Four Mountains. The survey was conducted aboard two chartered trawlers, the FV Alaska Provider and FV Sea Storm. Samples were collected successfully at 419 survey stations using standard RACE Division PolyNor’Eastern high-opening bottom trawl nets with rubber bobbin roller gear.