Fritz and Brown: Interactions between the Pacific cod fishery and Steller sea lions 



513 



initial influx that peaked in early February because it 

 sustained the fishery for only 1-2 weeks, and resulted 

 in cod catches of only approximately 7500 t from all 

 four areas. 



In the stock assessment for Pacific cod in the eastern 

 Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI; Thompson and 

 Dorn, 2002), the estimate of age 3+ biomass in 2001 

 was approximately 1.284 million t, whereas the female 

 spawning biomass was approximately 359,000 t. Dou- 

 bling the latter to account for male spawner biomass, 

 the survey and fishery data discussed in the present 

 study indicate that only 4% of the adult spawning and 

 3% of the age 3+ biomass was in the HSE area, and 



only about 1% and 4%, respectively, in the entire area 

 surveyed. The area north of Unimak Island is thought 

 to be one of the principal spawning grounds for Pacific 

 cod in the eastern Bering Sea (Shimada and Kimura, 

 1994; Thompson and Dorn, 2002). The results reported 

 in the present study may indicate that either 1) this is 

 not one of the principal spawning grounds for Pacific 

 cod in the eastern Bering Sea and most spawning oc- 

 curs elsewhere, 2) the stock assessment estimates are 

 too high, or 3) Pacific cod aggregated in the area after 

 the survey occurred. 



Biomass estimates from the assessment are approxi- 

 mately twice those derived directly from bottom trawl 



