This database contains information on individual sea lions that were marked or handled from 1985-2018. Individuals were handled for various projects including vital rate, telemetry and health studies. Many of the animals were either flipper tagged or branded. Capture techniques vary including; hand-capture of pups, hoop netting and underwater captures of juveniles, dart-delivered sedation of adult females, and floating pen capture of sub-adult and adult males. This dataset is associated with NMFS InPort Metadata Record #17918

The top five maximum ages encountered by the AFSC Age and Growth Program for collections aged between 1990 and 2020 except Pacific cod, which is limited to collections read after 2000.

Maximum age data is from ages generated between 1990 and 2020 except Pacific cod, which is limited to collections read after 2000.

Natural mortality (M) is estimated using the method outlined by Hoenig (1983) which uses maximum age to estimate instantaneous mortality.

The dataset is comprised of individual fish records from collections made during port sampling at Kodiak Alaska for the purpose of updating maturity estimates for selected GOA flatfish. The collections were made by an Alaska Fisheries Databank funded sampler. Sample preparation, ageing and histological determination of maturity state were completed by AFSC staff.

Aerial surveys of coastal Alaska are the primary method for estimating abundance of harbor seals. A particular challenge associated with aerial surveys of harbor seals is maintaining consistent spatial representation of haul-out locations (waypoints). In some cases, seals aggregate into a single large grouping at a particular area. In other cases, seals aggregate into several smaller groups spread over a particular area. To establish geo-spatial consistency, the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) maintains a list of haul-out locations that represent known harbor seal aggregations in Alaska. Haul-out locations were identified through aerial survey efforts and historical knowledge. Locations are assigned a unique alphanumeric identifier, based on the survey unit they fall within, and the spatial data are provided in the geographic (epsg:4326) coordinate reference system. These haul-out locations are used to inform management decisions pertaining to coastal activities (presence/absence of seals in a particular area) and to facilitate AFSC field work that includes both aerial and vessel surveys. Haul-out locations are updated annually based on information obtained from aerial survey observations. This dataset contains Alaska harbor seal haul-out locations that are recorded primarily to support aerial survey efforts in August and (in some areas, June). Harbor seals are known to use various haul-out locations seasonally and, thus, this is likely not a complete collection of harbor seal haul-out locations. Some haul-outs that are close together may be combined and represented as one site or waypoint. Important haul-out locations have been identified in the "status" field of the attribute table and are labeled as "key haulout" if a particular location contains 50 or more harbors seals. A haul-out location containing less than 50 harbor seals is labeled "not key haulout". This number may change as more in depth analysis continues.

Counts of Steller sea lions pups, adults, and juveniles are used to monitor trends in the population and used in the development of population models.

This dataset contains GIS layers that depict the known spatial distributions (i.e., ranges) of the five subspecies of ringed seals (Phoca hispida). It was produced as part of a U.S. Endangered Species Act status review, which included delineating the species in question and assessing its risk of extinction within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Its boundaries are based on previously published range maps and/or descriptions of the species' distribution in published or unpublished accounts. All boundaries should be considered approximate.

This data set is from a series of laboratory experiments examining the interactions between red and blue king crabs and habitat. We examined how density and predator presence affect habitat choice by red and blue king crabs. Further experiments determined how temperature and habitat affect predation by year-1 red king crab on year-0 blue king crab. Finally, long-term interaction experiments examined how habitat and density affected growth, survival, and intra-guild interactions between red and blue king crab.

This dataset contains detailed crab data collected from the annual NOAA/NMFS/AFSC/RACE crab-groundfish bottom trawl survey of the eastern Bering Sea continental shelf. The standard survey area, surveyed each year since 1975, encompasses a major portion of the eastern Bering Sea shelf between the 20 meter and 200 meter isobaths and from the Alaska Peninsula to the north of St. Matthew Island. The study area is divided into a grid with cell sizes of 20 x 20 nautical miles (37 x 37 kilometers). Sampling takes place within each 20 x 20 nautical mile grid cell. In areas surrounding St. Matthew (1983-present) and the Pribilof Islands (1981-present), grid corners were also sampled to better assess king crab concentrations. In 1975, tows were 1 hour in duration; from 1976 to present, each tow is one-half hour in duration, averaging 1.54 nautical miles (2.86 kilometers) - exact tow duration and distance fished for each haul can be found in RACEBASE.HAUL. 100% of the catch is sorted for red, blue, and golden king crab, bairdi Tanner, snow crab, hybrid Tanner, and hair crab. Crabs are sorted by species and sex, and a sample is measured to the nearest millimeter to provide a size-frequency distribution (see note under use constraints for analyzing catches where crab were subsampled for measurement). Carapace width is measured for Tanner crabs, and carapace length is measured for king and hair crabs.