Summary

Description

SWFSC FED Mid Water Trawl Juvenile Rockfish Survey: CTD Data. Surveys have been conducted along the central California coast in May/June every year since 1983. In 2004 the survey area was expanded to cover the entire coast from San Diego to Cape Mendocino. The survey samples a series of fixed trawl stations using a midwater trawl. The midwater trawl survey gear captures significant numbers of approximately 10 rockfish species during their pelagic juvenile stage (i.e., 50-150 days old), by which time annual reproductive success has been established. Catch-per-unit-effort data from the survey are analyzed and serve as the basis for predicting future recruitment to rockfish fisheries. Results for several species (e.g., bocaccio, chilipepper [S. goodei], and widow rockfish [S. entomelas]) have shown that the survey data can be useful in predicting year-class strength in age-based stock assessments. The survey's data on YOY Pacific whiting has also been used in the stock assessment process. To assist in obtaining additional northward spatial coverage of YOY Pacific whiting off Oregon and Washington, in 2001 the Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative in cooperation with the NOAA NMFS Northwest Fisheries Science Center began a midwater trawl survey patterned after the NOAA NMFS SWFSC Fisheries Ecology Division's (FED) existing survey. Both surveys work cooperatively together each year in order to resolve interannual abundance patterns of YOY rockfish and Pacific whiting on a coastwide basis, which provides expedient, critical information that can be used in the fisheries management process. The large quantity of physical data collected during the surveys (e.g., CTD with attached transimissometer and fluorometer, thermosalinometer, and ADCP) have provided a better understanding of the hydrographic conditions off the California coast and analysis of these data have been distributed through the publication of NOAA NMFS Technical Memoranda. For more information, see http://swfsc.noaa.gov/GroundfishAnalysis/ and http://www.sanctuarysimon.org/projects/project_info.php?projectID=100118