Table 11. — Summary of estimates of absolute population size for eastern Bering Sea walleye pollock (from Smith 1981). 



Source 



Region and time period 1 



Method 2 



Estimated 



population 



(X 10' t) 



Based upon research survey data 

 Pereyraetal. 1976' 



Bakkala and Smith 1978' 



Okada 1978'; Nunnallee 1978 6 

 Based upon commercial fisheries data 

 Chang 1974 



Chang 1974 



Low 1974 



Based upon model estimates 

 Laevastu and Favorite 1977' 



Eastern Bering Sea shelf, Unimak Pass 



1 



2.426 



to 61 °N (August-October 1975) 







Eastern Bering Sea shelf, Unimak Pass 



1 



0.679 



to 59 °N (April- June 1976) 







Aleutian Basin (June-July 1978) 



1 



0.840 



Eastern Bering Sea shelf, INPFC areas 



1 



2.3-2.6 



land 2 (1969-1970) 







Eastern Bering Sea shelf, INPFC areas 



2 



2.3-2.4 



1 and 2 (1970) 







Eastern Bering Sea, primarily INPFC 



1 



3.45-5.83 



areas land 2 (1964-1971) 







Eastern Bering Sea shelf 



8.235 



'A description of INPFC (International North Pacific Fisheries Commission) statistical areas is given in Forrester et 

 al. (1978). 



'Estimation methods: 1 = "area swept" (Baranov 1918; Alverson and Pereyra 1969); 2 = "cohort analysis" (Pope 

 1972); 3 = "model fitting" based upon commercial fisheries data. 



'Pereyra, W. T., J. E. Reeves, and R. G. Bakkala. 1976. Demersal fish and shellfish resources of the eastern Bering 

 Sea in the baseline year 1975. Processed rep., 619 p. Northwest and Alaska Fish. Cent., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv.,NOAA 

 2725 Montlake Blvd. E., Seattle, WA 98112. 



'Bakkala, R. G., and G. B. Smith. 1978. Demersal fish resources of the eastern Bering Sea: spring 1976. Processed 

 rep. , 234p. plus 534 p. append. Northwest and Alaska Fish. Cent. , Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv. , NOAA, 2725 Montlake Blvd. 

 E„ Seattle, WA 98112. 



'Okada, K. 1978. Preliminary report of acoustic survey and mid-water trawl on pollock stock of the Aleutian Basin 

 and adjacent waters in summer of 1978. Unpubl. manuscr., 13 p. [In Jpn., Engl, summ.] Jpn. Fish. Agency, 2-1, 

 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo, Jpn. 



6 Nunnallee, E. P. 1978. Report on observations aboard the Japanese research vessel Tomi Maru 52 during a Bering 

 Sea (Aleutian Basin) pollock survey conducted in June- July 1978. Unpubl. manuscr., 31 p. Northwest and Alaska Fish. 

 Cent., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., NOAA, 2725 Montlake Blvd. E., Seattle, WA 981 12. 



'Laevastu, T., and F. Favorite. 1977. Preliminary report on dynamical numerical marine ecosystem model (DYNUMES 

 II) for eastern Bering Sea. Processed rep., 81 p. Northwest and Alaska Fish. Cent., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., NOAA, 2725 

 Montlake Blvd. E., Seattle, WA 98112. 



Table 12. — Summary of annua] catch (metric tons) of walleye pollock from the 

 eastern Bering Sea by trawl fisheries, 1964 to 1979.' (From Smith 1981.) 









Republic of 



China, 







Year 



Japan 



U.S.S.R. 



Korea 



Taiwan 



Poland 



Total 



1964 



174,792 



















174,792 



1965 



230,551 



















230,551 



1966 



261,678 



















261,678 



1967 



550,362 



















550,362 



1968 



700,981 







1,200 











702,181 



1969 



830,494 



27,295 



5,000 











862,789 



1970 



1,231,145 



20,420 



5,000 











1,256,555 



1971 



1,513,923 



219,840 



10,000 











1,743,763 



1972 



1,651,438 



213,8% 



9,200 











1,874,534 



1973 



1,475,814 



280,005 



3,100 











1,758,919 



1974 



1,252,777 



309,613 



26,000 











1,588,390 



1975 



1,136,731 



216,567 



3,438 











1,356,736 



1976 



913,279 



179,212 



85,331 











1,177,822 



1977 



868,732 



63,467 



45,227 



944 







978,370 



'1978 



821,306 



92,714 



62,371 



3,040 







979,424 



'1979 



(774,630) 



(60,000) 



(85,000) 



(5,000) 



(25,000) 



(950,000) 



Bakkala, R., L. Low, and V. Wespestad. 1979. Condition of groundfish resources 

 in the Bering Sea and Aleutian area. Unpubl. manuscr., 107 p. Northwest and Alaska 

 Fish. Cent., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., NOAA, 2725 Montlake Blvd. E., Seattle, WA 

 98112. 



'Preliminary estimates. 



'Foreign fishing allocations (Pileggi and Thompson 1979). 



mass of fish in this area throughout most of the year may be 

 due to its richness as a foraging area as well as to the fact that it 

 is generally ice-free throughout the year. Zooplankton, such as 

 copepods and euphausiids, and planktivorous fishes, like 

 capelin and Pacific herring, are abundant throughout the year. 



Capelin. — Capelin, a member of the smelt family Osmeri- 

 dae, is one of the principal forage species of fur seals in the 

 eastern Bering Sea (Fig. 8). This fish occurred among the lead- 

 ing four prey species consumed by fur seals during 1960-64 

 (Niggol et al. footnote 15; Fiscus et al. 1964, 1965; Fiscus and 

 Kajimura 1965). The occurrences of capelin in 1960-63 were 

 primarily near the Aleutian Islands (Unimak Pass) and in 1964 

 in seals taken north of the Pribilof Islands (Fig. 30). Capelin, 

 however, were not among the principal prey species when sam- 

 pling was limited to an area around the Pribilof Islands in 1973 

 and 1974 (Kajimura et al. footnote 16; Kajimura and Sanger 

 footnote 17). 



Capelin are distributed both in the North Atlantic and the 

 North Pacific Oceans. In the North Pacific, capelin are found 

 from off Washington (Strait of Juan de Fuca) northward to 

 arctic Alaska and Kamchatka and in the Okhotsk Sea south- 

 ward to Korea (Hart 1973). This fish is considered an arctic 



23 



