210 
Fishery Bulletin 108(2) 
150°E 160°E 170°E 180° 170°W 160°W 150°W 140°W 130°W 120°W 
0 250 500 1,000 km 
1 l L l I 
, 1 1 1 1 
180° 170°W 160°W 150°W 140°W 
Figure 1 
Map showing NMFS management areas in which observed skate catch was examined from 1998 through 2008. 
Stippled areas = Bering Sea, shaded areas=Aleutian Islands, diagonal hatching=Gulf of Alaska. 
where i? ;/ = the observer reported retention rate of spe- 
cies i in haul j\ and 
C i; = the extrapolated catch weight of species i 
in haul j. 
Historical skate price information was derived from 
Alaska state fish-ticket data, and was compiled for the 
study period by Terry Hiatt (unpubl. data 1 ). An annual 
mean price was determined for each taxon by 1) calcu- 
lating the exvessel price paid per pound round weight 
at each delivery to all processors where the purchase 
of raw skates from Alaska waters was recorded, and 
then 2) calculating the simple average of those delivery 
price points over the calendar year. Round weight refers 
to intact whole specimens. For deliveries consisting of 
nonwhole specimens, round weight (in pounds) was 
calculated from net delivery weight by using a product 
1 Hiatt, T. 2009. NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science Center, 
Seattle, WA 98115. 
recovery rate (PRR) of 0.32 for “wings” and 0.9 for 
gutted animals (National Marine Fisheries Service, 
http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/rr/tables/tabl3.pdf, accessed 
November 2009). Each annual mean represents at least 
334 (range: 334-2247) data points. 
Results 
Skate species composition reported by observers over 
the past decade has changed considerably. Up to and 
including 2002, over 98% of OSC was reported as “skate 
unidentified” (Table 1). In 2003, less than 90% of OSC 
was unidentified, and the proportion of unidentified 
skates has continued to drop through 2008, a year in 
which only 2% of OSC was unidentified. Because the 
proportion of unidentified skates has dropped, the pro- 
portions of skates identified to the genus level ( Bathy - 
raja) and to the species level (Bathyraja parmifera. Raja 
binoculata, etc.) have continued to rise. In 2008, 46% of 
OSC was identified to the genus level and approximately 
