100-500 km, 8% within 500-1,000 km, and only 3% 

 were recovered at distances > 1,000 km from the 

 release site (Table 1). Regression analysis (Table 2) 

 revealed a slight, but significant increase in distance 

 traveled in relation to the number of days at liberty. 

 Analysis of variance tests of movement relative to 

 area released was significant, indicating that the 

 amount of movement differed between areas (Table 

 3). Least significant range tests (Sokal and Rohlf 

 1969) showed fish recovered from Yakutat releases 

 were significantly different (P = 0.05) from other 

 recoveries. Only two tagged fish were recovered from 

 releases made in the Yakutat area, both at long dis- 

 tance from the release site. 



Table 1.— Distance travel- 

 ed between release and re- 

 covery sites by tagged 

 sablefish in the north- 

 eastern Pacific Ocean. 



Table 2.— Regression analysis of kilometers traveled 

 by tagged sablefish on the number of days at liberty. 



An analysis was performed to determine if there was 

 any seasonal variation in movement such as move- 

 ment between spawning and feeding grounds or win- 

 ter and summer grounds. Releases and recoveries 

 were fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, 

 although more were recovered during the spring and 

 summer months when the fisheries were more active. 

 It was assumed that if seasonal movement occurred, 

 fish would be recovered near the release site in the 

 same season and in other areas in other seasons; 

 however, for fish tagged in January-March and Octo- 

 ber-December the opposite occurred (Table 4). Re- 

 coveries tagged in the spring (April-June) and winter 

 (October-December) months exhibited the greatest 

 amount of movement, which suggests that fish may 

 be more active in these months. Using chi-square 

 statistics, significant differences were detected be- 

 tween seasons (x 2 = 42.42,9 df), but not in any dis- 

 cernible pattern. 



TABLE 3.— Movement of sablefish in relation to INPFC area of 



release. 



"P<005 



*V<005 



TABLE 4.— Seasonal variation in sablefish movement in the northeastern Pacific 



Ocean. 



418 



